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O"- X 



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From the J'ii.''t 



NAPOLEON III. 



France from Behind 

the Veil: Fifty Years 
of Social and Political Life 



BY ^'-ifciteist^r 

Count Paul Vassili 



Illustrated 




FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 

New York and London 

1914 



^ 






Publishar 
JUM *5 1914 



PUBLISHERS' NOTE 

While this volume has been passing through the press 
certain of the personages still living at the time Count Vassili 
was at work on the manuscript of " France from Behind the 
Veil " have passed away. 

Also, incidents have occurred which are a reflex of matters 
mentioned in these pages. 

In such instances the publishers have thought well to 
bring the manuscript right up to date, leaving the reader 
to understand that events happening in 1914, and therefore 
subsequent to the Count's death, have been so treated. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

1. Last Days of the Empire : Napoleon and Eugenie 

2. The Surroundings and Friends of the Sovereigns 

3. Fontainebleau and Compiegne. 

4. Political Men of the Time 

5. Before the Storm .... 

6. The Disaster 

7. Letters from Paris during the Siege 

8. The Commune ..... 

9. M. Thiers . . . . 

10. The Comte de Chambord and his Party 

11. The Orleans Princes 

12. The Due d'Aumale and Chantilly . 

13. The Presidency of Marshal MacMahon 

14. Two Great Ministers 

15. Paris Society under the Presidency of Marshal 

MacMahon ..... 

16. A Few Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

17. Madame Juliette Adam 

18. A Few Literary Men 

19. The i6th of May and the Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

20. Leon Gambetta 



lAGC 

I 



25 
38 
52 
63 

73 

87 

99 
112 

123 

133 

144 
156 

166 

177 
190 
205 
218 
231 



vni 



Contents 



CHAITBK 

21. The Adventure of General Boulanger 

22. The Panama Scandal 

23. Two Presidents 

24. Imperial and Presidential Visits 

25. The French Press 

26. The Presidency of M: Loubet . 

27. The Dreyfus Affair . . . 

28. Parisian Salons under the Third Republic 

29. The Present Tone of Paris Society 

30. M. FALLifeREs as President 

31. M. Briand and the Socialists . 

32. A Few Literary Men of the Present Day 

33. A Few Foreign Diplomats 

L'Envoi 

Index . 



PAGB 
244 

271 

297 
308 

318 
332 

343 
358 
366 

372 

382 

389 
391 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Napoleon III.. 


• 


• 


• 




Frontispiece 


FACING PAGE 

Empress Eugenie lo 


M. Adolphe Thiers 










. ii8 


Marshal MacMahon 










. ii8 


COMTE DE ChAMBORD 










. ii8 


Leon Gambetta 










. iiS 


Madame Juliette Adam . 










. 212 


Alex. Dumas (Pere) 










. 212 


Anatole France 










. 212 


Octave Mirbeau 










. 212 


Captain Dreyfus . 










, 246 


General Boulanger 










. 246 


Emile Zola 










. 246 


M. DE Lesseps 










. 246 


M. M. F. Sadi-Garnot . 










. 310 


M. J. P. P. Casimer Perier . 










• 310 


M. F. F. Faure 










• 310 


M. E. Loubet .... 










• 310 


M. A. Fallieres 










. 360 


M. R. POINCARE 










. 360 


M. A. Briand .... 










• 360 


M. G. Clemenceau . 










• 360 


The Chamber of Deputies Sit 


ting. 








• 370 



France from Behind the Veil 



CHAPTER I 

Last Days of the Empire : Napoleon and Eugenie 

Towards the end of the year 1868 I arrived in Paris, I had 
often before been in the great city, but had never occupied 
any official position there. Now, however, having been 
appointed secretary to our (Russian) embassy, I conse- 
quently enjoyed special privileges, not the least being oppor- 
tunity to watch quite closely the actors in what was to prove 
one of the greatest dramas of modern history. I had many 
acquaintances in Paris, but these belonged principally to the 
circle known still by the name of Faubourg St. Germain, for 
I had never frequented the Imperialistic world. Conse- 
quently I found myself thrown in quite a different milieu, 
and had to forgo a great many of my former friends, who 
would not have cared to receive in their houses one who 
now belonged to the intimate coterie of the Tuileries. In 
a certain sense I felt sorry ; but on the other hand I dis- 
covered that the society in which I now found myself was 
far more pleasant, and certainly far more amusing, than my 
former circle. To a young man such as I was at that time, 
this last consideration, of course, was most attractive. 

Paris, during that autumn of the year 1868, was extremely 
congenial ; indeed, it has never been so brilhant since the 



France from Behind the Veil 

Napoleonic Eagle disappeared. The Sovereigns liked to 
surround themselves with nice people, and sought popu- 
larity among the different classes of society ; they gave 
splendid receptions, and did their best to create around them 
an atmosphere of luxury and enjoyment. They frequented 
the many theatres for which Paris was famed, were present 
at the races, and in general showed themselves wherever 
they found opportunity to appear in public. During the 
summer and autumn months the Imperial hospitality was 
exercised with profusion and generosity, either at Compiegne 
or at Fontainebleau, and it was only at St. Cloud or at 
Biarritz that the Emperor and his lovely Consort led a rela- 
tively retired life, while they enjoyed a short and well-earned 
holiday. 

As is usual in such cases, the Imperialistic society fol- 
lowed the lead given to it from above, and pleasure followed 
upon pleasure, festivity crowded upon festivity during these 
feverish months which preceded the Franco-Prussian War. 
In 1868 the clouds that had obscured the Imperial sky at 
the time of the ill-fated Mexican Expedition had passed 
away, and the splendours which attended the inauguration 
of the Suez Canal were already looming on the horizon. 

The political situation as yet seemed untroubled; indeed, 
though the Emperor sometimes appeared sad and anxious, 
no one among all those who surrounded him shared the 
apprehensions which his keen political glance had already 
foreseen as inevitable. The Empress, too, appeared as if 
she wanted to make the most of her already disappearing 
youth, and to gather her roses whilst she still could do so, 
with all the buoyancy of her departed girlish days. 

The leading spirit of all the entertainments given at the 
Tuileries, the Princess Pauline Metternich, was always alert 
for some new form of amusement wherewith to enliven the 



Napoleon and Eugenie 

house parties of Compiegne, or the solemnity of the even- 
ing parties given in the old home of the Kings of France — 
that home from which Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette 
had gone to the scaffold, and to which their memory clung 
in spite of all those who had inhabited it since the day they 
started upon their tragic journey to Varennes. 

The fair Eugenie had a special reverence for the memory 
of the beautiful Austrian Archduchess whose destiny it had 
been to die by the hand of the executioner within a few 
steps of the grand old palace that had been hers. With all 
the impressionability of her Spanish nature she used to say 
that she was sure a like fate awaited her, and so prepared 
herself to die as had died the unfortunate Princess whose 
place she had taken. Eugenie often spoke of what she would 
do when that day should come, and sometimes amused her 
friends with her conviction that she, too, was destined to 
endure tragic misfortunes and calamities. Her presentiments 
were fulfilled ; but, alas ! she did not bear them with true 
dignity. 

At the time of which I am speaking — October, 1868 — 
Napoleon III, had just completed his sixtieth year. In spite 
of the agonies occasioned by the painful disease from which 
he was suffering, he retained his good looks, and notwith- 
standing his small height and the largeness of his head, which, 
compared with the size of his body, would have been ridiculous 
in any other person, he presented a most dignified appear- 
ance, and bore himself like a Sovereign born to the purple 
would have done. When he chose, the expression of his face 
was charming, and the eyes, which he always kept half closed, 
had a dreamy, far-away, mysterious look that gave them a 
peculiar charm. He spoke slowly, as if carefully weighing 
every word he uttered ; but what surprised one when 
talking with him for the first time was a German accent in 

3 



France from Behind the Veil 

speaking French — a habit retained from his early days 
spent in Switzerland — from which he could not rid himself, 
in spite of all his efforts, as well as those of M. Mocquard, 
his faithful secretary and friend, who, so long as he lived, 
gave him lessons in elocution. I believe that the slowness 
with which Napoleon III. expressed himself must be attri- 
buted to that circumstance more than anything else. But 
it is a fact that sometimes it had the effect of irritating 
those with whom he was engaged in conversation ; they 
never knew what he was going to say next, and oft times 
gathered the impression that some ulterior motive actuated 
his speech. 

With ladies the Emperor was always charming, and his 
manner with them had a tinge of chivalry that savoured of 
olden times, and generally succeeded in winning for him all 
that he wanted. His love intrigues were numerous, and his 
wife was not always wrong when she complained, though not 
improbably she would have done better to notice and talk of 
them less than she did. In general the Empress was much 
too fond of communicating her feelings and impressions to 
those whom she considered her friends without the slightest 
reason for thinking them to be such. Her many intimacies 
with ladies who bore her no real sympathy, such as Princess 
Metternich, for instance, did her much harm and caused 
her many annoyances which she could well have avoided 
had she shown herself more careful in what she did or said. 
She never realised that community in amusement does not 
constitute community of feelings, and that whilst one may 
like the society of some people because one enjoys their good 
dinners, or spends one's time pleasantly in their company, 
it does not mean that one really cares for them, or trusts 
them. 

Napoleon III. had been a very clever poHtician. I use 

4 



Napoleon and Eugenie 

the words " had been " intentionally, because, unhappily, it is 
certain that toward the end of his reign he had lost some 
of his former sharpness. Neither did he see so plainly the 
dangers of his situation, nor realise that he could not 
act as freely as he had done at the time of the coup 
d'etat of December, 1852, and during the Crimean and 
Italian campaigns. 

He felt himself weakened, in part through the mistakes 
of his early youth, as well as by his associations, which were 
beginning to tell upon him, and of which he had a nervous 
dread of being reminded. As an example of this the follow- 
ing anecdote is typical. A Russian lady, the Countess K , 

who used to frequent the Tuileries, met one day an Italian 
statesman, whose name I won't mention as he is still living. 
This gentleman suddenly asked whether it would not amuse 
her to frighten the Emperor. She was young and giddy, and 
accepted with enthusiasm. He then told her that at the 
next fancy ball that was going to take place at the Naval 
Ofhce, the Sovereigns were to attend as the guests of the 
Marquis and the Marquise de Chasseloup Laubat. The lady 
was to approach Napoleon and to whisper in his ear the 
name of an Italian then in Paris, and to remind Napoleon 
of an interview he had had with him in a small inn near 
Perugia, No explanations were given to the lady, and she 
never asked for any, but when the ball took place she managed 
to approach the Emperor, who was present in a domino, 
and to murmur in his ear the phrase given her, without, it 
must be owned, attaching any special importance to it. 
Napoleon's face became white, and, seizing her hand, he 
asked her, in an agitated voice, to tell him from whom she 
had obtained this information. The Countess was terrified, 
and replied that a domino had whispered it to her during 
the ball. The Emperor plied her with questions, but to 

5 



France from Behind the Veil 

no purpose, as his extreme emotion had put her on her guard. 
Two days later, to her surprise, she was invited to dine at 
the Tuileries. When the meal was over, the Empress, who 
had been unusually gracious, called her to her side, and taking 
care no one should hear them, asked her to explain from 
whom she had heard the incident to which she had alluded 
during her conversation with the Emperor, at the ball of 
Madame de Chasseloup Laubat. The Countess, though taken 
quite unawares, persisted in her assurance that she did not 
know the domino who had imparted it to her ; that she 
was now very sorry for heedlessly repeating words to which 
she had attached no importance. Eugenie pressed her again 
and again, and at last exclaimed with impatience, as she 
rose from her chair : " People like to be asked to the 
Tuileries, but do not seem to consider that it is a griev- 
ous want of tact to hold converse with the enemies of the 
Sovereign whilst doing so." " And," added the Countess 
when she related to me this anecdote, " from that moment I 
was watched at every step by the secret police, and to this 
day I do not know why I was chosen as the instrument to 
deal such a blow to Napoleon III." 

I have related this anecdote to prove how very much 
the Emperor dreaded all that related to his first steps in 
political life, under the patronage of the Carbonari and other 
secret associations that were working towards the unifica- 
tion of Italy. He did not feel himself a free agent in that 
respect ; no one knew exactly why, because he never ex- 
pressed himself on the subject — but it is certain that some 
of the most unexpected things he did had their source in 
this mysterious influence which made him appear to be more 
or less averse to thwarting the desires of his former Italian 
friends. 

Napoleon was not brilliant by any means ; but he was 

6 



Napoleon and Eugenie 

certainly clever, though sometimes lacking in initiative. It 
is not likely that he would ever have had the courage either 
to escape from Ham, or to overthrow the second Republic, 
had he not been emboldened in the first of these attempts 
by Conneau, and in the second by Morny and Fleury, together 
with the active Maupat. He lived under the spell of the 
Napoleonic tradition, and being before everything else a fatalist, 
he thought himself destined to ascend the throne which 
his uncle had conquered. He never fought against destiny, 
and so acquired an apathy which totally unfitted him for 
any unexpected struggle. At Sedan he surrendered with 
hardly a murmur, as, though he well knew the step to be 
a fatal one, he had tolerated MacMahon's fatal occupation 
of that fortress. He had lost all faith in his future, and 
he had given up the game long before he handed his sword 
to the conqueror. 

The Emperor's was essentially a kind nature. During 
the eighteen years of his reign he did an enormous amount 
of good, and certainly France owes to him a good deal of her 
present prosperity. He thought about his people's welfare 
more than had any previous Sovereign ; the economic ques- 
tion was one to which he had given his most earnest atten- 
tion. He wanted his country to be strong, rich, an example 
to others in its energetic progress along the path of material 
and intellectual development. He was a lover of art ; he 
was a keen student, an admirer of literature ; and he appre- 
ciated clever men. Catholic in his- tastes, he had the rare 
faculty of forgetting the wrongs done to him, in the remem- 
brance of the many proofs of affection he had experienced. 
Gifted with a sweet and sunny temperament, he had been 
brought up in the school of adversity. Amidst all the gran- 
deur that he enjoyed later on, he never forgot the lesson ; 
and when misfortune once more assailed him, he was never 

7 



France from Behind the Veil 

heard to murmur, or to reproach those whose incapacity 
had destroyed his hfe's work. 

Socially, Napoleon never forgot that the first duty of a 
monarch is ever to appear to be amiable. Whenever he 
swerved from that axiom it was always for some very good 
reason. He had great tact, and possessed to perfection the 
art of invariably saying the right thing in the right place. 
Yet he knew very well how to differentiate between persons, 
and to accord the exact shade of behaviour towards an 
Ambassador or to an Attache, to a simple tourist, or to a 
foreign personage entrusted with a mission of some kind. 

He was entirely interesting in all his remarks, and always 
conversant with the subject about which he spoke. Though 
he had pretensions to scientific and historical knowledge, 
he was not at all a well-read man in the strict sense ; but he 
had a wonderful faculty of assimilating all that he read, and 
after having quickly run through a book, was at once 
acquainted with its principal points or defects. Sceptical in 
his appreciations, and perhaps in his beliefs, he had the utmost 
respect for the convictions of his fellow creatures, and though 
by no means a religious man, reverenced religion deeply. 
His faults and errors, in the political sense, proceeded more 
from the influence of his immediate entourage than from his 
own appreciation of right and wrong. In many things he 
deserves to be pitied, and in many of his mistakes he was 
the scapegoat of those who threw their blame upon his 
shoulders — a blame that either from indifference or from 
disdain he accepted without a murmur. 

Paradoxical as it may seem to say so, he knew humanity, 
but not the people with whom he lived. He never expected 
gratitude, and yet he believed that the men upon whom he 
had showered any amount of benefits would feel grateful 
to him. To the last hour of his life he thought that his 

8 



Napoleon and Eugenie 

dynasty had some chance to recover the throne ; and he re- 
mained convinced of the fidehty of his partisans in spite of 
the many proofs that he had to the contrary. His many 
illusions proceeded from the kindness of his nature, a kind- 
ness that never failed him, either in prosperity or in disaster. 

I was introduced to Napoleon III. at Compiegne. I had 
been invited there, together with the Russian Ambassador, 
in the course of the month of November that had followed 
upon my appointment in Paris. We assembled before dinner 
in what was called the Salle des Gardes, a long apartment 
panelled in white, to which a profusion of flowers, scattered 
ever5rwhere, gave a homely look. We were a very numer- 
ous company, and it was on that evening I became acquainted 
with many leading stars in the Imperial firmament. We did 
not have to wait long before a door was opened and an 
huissier called out in a loud voice : " L'Empereur ! " 

The Sovereigns entered the room, the Empress slightly 
in front. Napoleon following her with the Princess Clotilde 
on his arm. He began at once to talk with the members 
of the Corps Diplomatique, whilst his Consort approached 
the ladies gathered together at one end of the vast hall. 
When my Ambassador presented me. Napoleon asked me 
whether I was the son " of the lovely Countess Vassili " he 
had known in London, and when I replied to him in the 
affirmative he at once began to talk about my mother, and 
the many opportunities he had had to meet her. " I am 
glad to see you here," he added, " and I hope you will enjoy 
your stay in France." 

The Empress on that day, when I beheld her for the first 
time, did not strike me as so absolutely beautiful as I had 
been led to expect. Later on I found out that her greatest 
attraction was in the varying charm of her expressive face. 
The features were quite lovely in their regularity, but a 

9 



France from Behind the Veil 

certain heaviness in the chin robbed them of what otherwise 
would have been absolute perfection. The mouth had a 
curve which told that on occasion the Empress could be very 
hard and disdainful, but the eyes and the hair were glorious, 
the figure splendid, and she had an inimitable grace in her 
every movement. With the exception of the Empress Marie 
Feodorovna of Russia, I have never seen anyone bow like 
Eugenie, with that sweeping movement of her whole body 
and head, that seemed to be addressed to each person present 
in particular and to all in general. On that particular even- 
ing she was a splendid vision in evening dress. Her white 
shoulders shone above the low bodice of her gown, and 
many jewels adorned her beautiful person. But though 
she excited admiration she did not at first appeal either 
to the senses or to the imagination of men. At least, so it 
seemed to me, whatever might have been said to the con- 
trary. Later on, however, when one had opportunity to see 
her more frequently, and especially to talk with her, her 
personality grew upon one with an especial charm that has 
never been equalled by any other woman. She was not 
brilliant ; she held strong opinions ; she was very much 
impressed by her position, though, it must be owned, not 
in the least dazzled by her extraordinary success ; she was 
impulsive ; she was not overwhelmingly tactful ; had much 
knowledge of the world, but little knowledge of mankind ; 
she wounded sometimes when she had no intention of doing 
so ; she was romantic, though unsentimental ; there were 
the strangest contradictions in her nature, the strangest 
mixtures of good and bad ; but with all her defects she com- 
pletely subjugated those who got to know her, whatever 
might have been the first impression. Her glances had 
something of Spanish softness blended with French coquetry. 
In a word, she was a most attractive woman — one of the 




EMPRESS EUGENIE 



Napoleon and Eugenie 

most attractive that has ever lived — but she certainly was 
not an ideal Sovereign. 

When Eugenie married she was already twenty-seven, and 
therefore it was not easy for her to become used to the vari- 
ous duties and obligations of her new position. She was a 
thorough woman of the world, which rendered her especially 
charming when at Compiegne or at Fontainebleau, where 
etiquette was not so strict as at the Tuileries. At those 
moments she was positively bewitching, but when she thought 
it necessary to assume her Imperial manner she lost her 
womanly charm. 

There have been many beautiful moments in Eugenie's 
life ; such, for instance, as her famous visit to Amiens at the 
time the cholera was raging there, and when, with a truly 
royal indifference, she exposed herself to very real and 
serious danger. She was charitable, and preferred not to 
boast of her charities ; but, not possessing the Emperor's 
disposition, she resented injuries done to her. She was im- 
petuous in all that she did, thought, or felt ; certainly bigoted 
and superstitious, as Spaniards generally are. She was 
not courageous, though brave, because these are two very 
different things. She would not have minded being mur- 
dered in state, and the memory of the deed being handed 
down to posterity ; but she could not find the resolution to 
face an intricate situation, nor to remain silent and firm at 
a difficult moment. Her nature was essentially restless ; she 
could never wait with patience for what the future might 
hold. Her attitude on the 4th of September was characteristic, 
and it was in accordance with her nature that she tried to 
explain the abandonment of her position as Regent by the 
word " necessity," when, in reality, it was the shrinking of a 
lonely woman, with no one near her to tell her what she ought 
to do, or to show her how to resist the demands of the mob. 



France from Behind the Veil 

But once more I must say she exercised a wonderful 
fascination on all those whom she entertained. There was 
something remarkable in the influence she exercised. In her 
presence one forgot all save her extraordinary charm. 

In her private life Eugenie de Monti jo, in spite of all that 
has been said and written on that subject, has always been 
irreproachable. Amid all the gaieties of the Court over which 
she presided she remained pure and chaste, and redeemed 
the many frailties of her outward demeanour by the dignity 
and blamelessness of her existence as a wife and mother. She 
bitterly resented the indiscretions of the Emperor, but she 
kept herself aloof from everything that could have been 
construed as a desire on her part to retaliate. Perhaps her 
temperament helped her ; but it is certain that as a wife she 
was blameless, and that she showed herself an enlightened 
mother, trying to bring up her son above the flatteries that 
usually surround children born in such a high position, teach- 
ing him to obey, to be grateful to those who took care of 
him, and loving him quite as well and more wisely than the 
Emperor, who was perhaps too indulgent in matters which 
concerned his only son. That the Prince Imperial remained 
an only child was a source of deep grief to Napoleon III. 

When first I saw Eugenie, her whole appearance was 
fairy-like ; in spite of her forty years, she eclipsed all other 
women. Her slight, graceful figure was almost girlish in its 
suppleness, and she is the only woman I have ever seen who, 
though in middle life, did not prompt one to utter the usual 
remark when lovely members of the fair sex have attained 
her age : " How beautiful she must have been when she 
was young ! " 



12 



CHAPTER II 

The Surroundings and Friends of the Sovereigns 

When Napoleon III. married, he tried to establish his Court 
on the same footing as that of his uncle after the latter's 
union with Marie Louise, and fearing that, in spite of his 
affection, his young wife would find it hard to get used to 
her exalted position, he surrounded her with the trammels 
of a severe etiquette. From this, however, she gradually 
emancipated herself, especially during the time when she 
acted as Regent for the Emperor, at the period of the war 
of 1859 with Austria. 

This emancipation was in itself a curious phase. In her 
way Eugenie was just as anxious as the Emperor to order 
her household upon the same lines as those of the other 
great Courts of Europe. Especially with that of Windsor 
she had been deeply impressed, when with the Emperor she 
visited Queen Victoria. But she was not endowed by nature 
with that reserved dignity which is a necessity to regal rank, 
and the result stultified her efforts. The Empress, when a 
girl, had enjoyed far more liberty than girls had at the time 
of which I am writing. This lack of control led her sometimes 
to forget her rank as Empress, and she found herself drifting 
into her old habits of sa3ring everything that occurred to her, 
or of allowing her sympathies and her antipathies to be seen 
by a public always eager and ready to criticise. 

She had but few friends, and after the death of her sister, 
the Duchesse d'Albe, she felt very isolated, and in need of 

13 



France from Behind the Veil 

one into whose ear she might confide her sorrows and her 
joys. She did not get on with the members of the Imperial 
Family, and she had been very much hurt at the attitude 
taken up in regard to her by the Princess Clotilde. Eugenie 
had received the Princess with open arms, but had met with 
repulse from the very first moment Clotilde arrived in France, 
Then, again, Eugenie's relations with Prince Napoleon became 
of the worst, perhaps owing to the fact that there had been 
a day, before her marriage with the Emperor, when those 
relations were very near. The antagonism towards her which 
the only cousin of her husband chose to adopt, wounded her 
to the quick, and instead of trying to overcome it with tact 
and apparent indifference, she did her best to accentuate 
his animosity, until open warfare resulted, and the strained 
situation became a general topic of gossip. 

With Princess Mathilde, the sister of the Prince, the 
Empress was, also, not on intimate terms, although apparently 
they bore one another affection. The Princess was perhaps 
the most remarkable among the many fascinating women 
with whom the Second Empire will remain associated. Sur- 
passingly beautiful in her youth, she retained her good looks, 
and notwithstanding her embonpoint, possessed a personality 
of great dignity. She was certainly a grande dame, despite 
her numerous frailties. 

She was clever, kind, brilliant in more senses than one ; 
very talented, she liked to surround herself with clever people, 
who, in their turn, were glad to have her appreciation. There 
had been a time when the question of a marriage between 
her and her cousin. Prince Louis Napoleon, had been dis- 
cussed, but the latter's chances were so uncertain, that neither 
Mathilde nor her father had had the courage to run the risk 
of uniting her destiny with that of the Pretender, 

The Princess married M. Demidoff, and very soon regretted 

14 



Friends of the Sovereigns 

it ; so deeply that she tried to break the bonds. Thanks to 
the intervention of the Emperor Nicholas of Russia, a separa- 
tion was arranged under very favourable terms for Madame 
Demidoff, who, by permission of the government of Louis 
PhiHppe, settled in Paris, She did not mix with politics, 
and only tried to create for herself a pleasant circle of ac- 
quaintances and friends. Unfortunately, she possessed in 
addition to a superior and cultivated mind, a very ardent 
temperament, and gossip soon became busy with her name, 
especially after her liaison with Count de Nieuwekerke became 
a recognised fact. 

When the Revolution of 1848 brought back to France 
the heir to the Bonaparte traditions, the Princess Mathilde 
at once hastened to his side, and showed herself to be the 
best of friends. It was the Princess Mathilde who presided 
at his first entertainment at Compiegne, as well as at the 
Elysee, where he was residing when in the capital, and it 
was at her house that the Prince President, as he was called, 
met for the first time the lovely Spaniard who was later to 
become his wife. 

The Princess Mathilde did not like the marriage, in view 
of the fact that she might have occupied the place which this 
stranger took, as it were by storm ; she would hardly have 
been human had she done so. But she was far too clever 
to show her disapproval, and it is related that when the 
question arose as to who should carry the train of the new 
Empress, Mathilde at once declared that she would do so 
if the Emperor asked her, much to the astonishment and 
perhaps to the scandal of those who heard her. She bore 
no malice, and thought herself far too great a lady to imagine 
that by whatever she might do she would fall in the estimation 
of others, or that it would be derogatory to her position. 

But though she consented to receive the future wife of 

15 



France from Behind the Veil 

her cousin when first she entered the Tuileries, and though 
she tried hard to establish friendly relations with her, all 
her efforts failed, partly because the young Empress felt 
afraid of the brilliant Princess, and of her sharp tongue and 
brusque manners, partly, also, because Mathilde did not care 
for the people who formed the entourage of the Sovereign, 
and never felt at her ease at the many entertainments given 
by Eugenie. She thought them either too dull or too boisterous. 
Mathilde was never so happy as when in her own house 
in the Rue de Courcelles, where all that was distinguished in 
France considered it an honour to be admitted, and where 
she could live the life of a private lady of high rank. She 
was too frank to conceal what she felt, and too honest to 
flatter the Empress, or to find charming what she considered 
to be the reverse. Though she disapproved of many things 
that her brother. Prince Napoleon, did, she did not care to 
blame him publicly, and thus she maintained a neutral attitude 
in regard to both. Eugenie's airy disposition and love of 
amusement in any shape or form prevented her from finding 
pleasure in the company of the Princess Mathilde, whom she 
thought exceedingly dull, and whom she accused of fomenting 
the accusations which her enemies showered upon her. So 
long as the Empire lasted there was no sympathy between 
the Empress and her husband's cousin, and it was only later, 
when both ladies had realised the emptiness of worldly things, 
that their relations became intimate and affectionate, so 
much so that when Mathilde Bonaparte died, it was Eugenie 
who watched beside her, and whose hands were the last she 
pressed before expiring. 

The best friend that the Empress Eugenie had among 
the members of the Imperial Family was the Princess Anna 
Murat, who married the Duke of Mouchy, to the horror of 
all the Noailles family, and the chagrin of the Faubourg St. 

i6 



Friends of the Sovereigns 

Germain generally. Princess Anna was one of the loveliest 
women of her time, though perhaps not one of the brightest. 
Still, she had a warm heart, a kindly disposition, and a sincere 
attachment for the Empress. She had very nice dignified 
manners, if sometimes stiff, and was perhaps the only really 
grande dame, with the exception of the Princess Mathilde, 
among the many ladies with whom Eugenie liked to surround 
herself. 

Very much might be said about the ladies of the Court. 
There were lovely women, such as the Countess Valovska, nee 
Anna Ricci, the dark Florentine, whose smiles won her so 
many hearts, including that of Napoleon III. ; others were 
clever like Pauline Metternich, and some were both lovely 
and clever, Melanie Pourtales for instance, that star of the 
Empire who condescended later to shine in the Republican 
firmament, and who to this day is one of the celebrities of 
Paris, in spite of her seventy odd years. There was the 
Duchesse de Persigny, and the Duchesse de Cadore, and the 
Baroness de Rothschild, and many others, but among them 
all the Empress could not boast of a real friend, always with 
the exception of the Duchesse de Mouchy, who owed her far 
too much ever to dare criticise anything she did. 

I have mentioned the Princess Metternich. Among all 
those to whose fatal influence the Second Empire owed its 
fall she holds one of the first and foremost places. She it 
was who sapped its foundations and lowered its dignity ; 
she it was who with a rude hand pulled back the veil which, 
until she appeared at Compiegne and at the Tuileries, had 
still been drawn between the general public and the Imperial 
Court. Young and ugly, but clever and gifted with what 
the French call brio, she lived but for one thing, and that was 
amusement in any shape or form. She had no respect for the 
society in which she found herself, and brought to Paris 

C If 



France from Behind the Veil 

an atmosphere of carelessness such as we sometimes display 
when we find ourselves travelling in a country where we 
are unknown, and where we can do what we like without 
fear of the qu'en dira-t-on, or, as they say in England, " Mrs. 
Grundy," After some experience of the strict etiquette of 
the Austrian Hofburg, she felt delighted to be able to dispense 
with it, and treated the Empress with disdain, making use 
of her in order to attain her own ends, and ruling the Tuileries 
like some of the present great ladies in pecuniary straits rule 
the houses of the American or South African millionaires 
whom — for a consideration — they introduce into society. 
The behaviour of the Princess Metternich can be characterised 
by her remark to a lady who, at Compiegne, reproved her 
for trying to induce the Empress to appear in public in a 
short gown, a thing that was not considered to be proper 
at the time of which I am writing. The friend asked her at 
the same time whether she would have advised the Empress 
Elizabeth to do such a thing ; she replied vehemently : " No, 
certainly not, I would not do such a thing, but then my 
Empress is a real one." 

Pauline Metternich never liked Eugenie ; she secretly 
envied her for her beauty. She encouraged her in every 
false or mistaken step the Empress unwittingly took. She 
brought a shade of vulgarity into all the entertainments over 
which she presided and which she organised. She smoked 
big cigars without minding in the least whether it pleased 
the Empress or not, and she allowed herself every kind of 
liberty, sure of immunity, and careless as to what people thought 
about her. She showed herself the most ungrateful of beings, 
forsaking her friend when the latter was precipitated into 
obscurity and misfortune, never once giving her a thought. 
Pauline Metternich was a perfect type of an opportunist without 
a memory, and after having danced, eaten, smoked, enjoyed 

i8 



Friends of the Sovereigns 

herself at the Tuileries where she always was a favoured guest, 
she never once sent a message of sympathy to the discarded 
Sovereign, whose acquaintance she probably thought irksome 
and inconvenient. Once in a moment of expansion, so the 
story goes, she gave way to a remark which deserves to pass 
to posterity concerning those years during which she was 
the leading spirit at all the entertainments given at the 
Tuileries, and which I cannot help reproducing here : A 
diplomat who had known her in Paris asked her whether she 
did not regret the Second Empire, and received a character- 
istic reply : " Regret it ? Why ? It was very amusing, 
very vulgar, and it could not last ; we all knew it, and we 
all made hay whilst the sun shone," 

Countess Melanie Pourtales, in that respect, was far superior 
to Princess Metternich ; she at least had the decency to remain 
faithful to her former sympathies and to her Bonapartist 
leanings. To this day she sees the Empress when the latter 
visits Paris, and she never indulges in one word of blame 
concerning that far away time when she also was one of the 
queens of the Tuileries. 

Melanie de Bussieres is one of the marvels of last century. 
As beautiful as a dream, she had an angelic face, lovely innocent 
eyes, which used to look at the world with the guilelessness of 
a child, and a Madonna-like expression that reminded one of 
a long white lily drooping on its stem. She was intelligent, 
too, had an enormous amount of tact, and succeeded, whilst 
denying herself none of her caprices, in keeping unimpaired 
her place in Parisian society, of retaining as her friends all 
those to whom the world had given another name, and of 
acquiring a position such as few women have ever had before 
her. Always kind, rarely malicious, smiling alike on friends 
and foes, she contrived to disarm the latter, and never to 
estrange the former. Though very much envied, yet she was 

19 



France from Behind the Veil 

liked, and she inspired with enthusiasm all those with whom 
she was brought into contact. Now she is a great-grand- 
mother, but still a leading light of social Paris, and those 
who formerly admired her beauty continue to crowd around 
her in order to listen to her conversation. 

When I entered the circle of Imperialist society, I was 
struck by the number of pretty women that I met there. 
They were not all clever ; a good many were vulgar, but most 
of them were lovely. A ball at that time was a pretty sight, 
far prettier than it is at the present day, and as for amuse- 
ment, one could find it vv^herever one went. Morals, on the 
other hand, were no worse than is the case at present ; indeed, 
in many respects they were better, insomuch that it was far 
more difficult then, owing to the conditions of existence, for 
a lady belonging to the upper classes to misbehave herself 
than is the case at present, when women go freely everywhere, 
whilst during the Second Empire it was hardly possible for a 
well-known lady to be seen in a cab or a 'bus, or even walking 
in unfrequented streets. " Le diable n'y perdait rien," to use 
an old French expression ; but a certain decorum, totally absent 
nowadays, had to be adhered to, and the Empress was very 
severe upon all those who infringed its rules. She had attacks 
of prudery, as it were, during which she posed as a watcher 
over the morals of her Court. Such a procedure among the 
very carefully immoral persons who surrounded her made 
many people smile. 

The Emperor also had but few personal friends. The 
most faithful and devoted perhaps was Dr. Conneau, who had 
watched over Queen Hortense during her last illness, and who 
had given to her son the most sincere proofs of affection that 
one man can give to another. Conneau was that rara avis, 
a totally disinterested person. Millions had passed through 
his hands, but he died poor, and when the Empire fell he was 



Friends of the Sovereigns 

reduced to selling a collection of rare books he possessed, in 
order to have bread in his old age. He loved Napoleon with 
his whole heart, soul, and mind, and belonged to the very 
few who cared for and believed in the traditions of the Bona- 
partes. He did infinite good during the eighteen years the 
Empire lasted, and never refused to lay a case of distress 
before Napoleon HI. once it was brought to his notice. Every- 
body respected him, and he was a general favourite with 
everyone, except perhaps with the Empress, who felt no per- 
sonal sympathy for him. 

Conneau had voluntarily asked to be allowed to share 
the Emperor's captivity at Ham, and it was thanks to him 
that the latter contrived to escape from that fortress disguised 
as a workman, with a plank on his shoulder, behind which 
he hid his face. Whilst Napoleon was hastening towards the 
Belgian frontier, Conneau did his best to hide his flight from 
the authorities, declaring to those who wanted to see him 
that he was ill and asleep in his bed, Conneau had cunningly 
arranged the pillows in such a way that they appeared to 
represent a body wrapped up in blankets. He knew very well 
that in doing this he was running a great risk, but nothing 
stopped him, and it is certain that to his bold initiative 
Napoleon HI. owed first his escape and afterwards his Imperial 
Crown. 

Conneau never left the Emperor, who breathed his last in 
that faithful servant's arms, murmuring before doing so : 
" Conneau, were you at Sedan ? " thus showing how incurable 
had been the wound received on that fatal day which saw 
the fall of his throne and of his dynasty. 

Conneau, with perhaps the exception of M. Mocquard, 
Napoleon's private secretary, was the person who knew the 
best of the Emperor's character, and he remained faithful 
to him to the last. One day a friend asked him whether he 

21 



France from Behind the Veil 

was sorry not to have died before the fall of the Empire, and 
to have witnessed the terrible catastrophes that accompanied 
it. Conneau immediately replied: "I am sorry for myself, 
but glad for the Emperor, who would have had one friend less 
around him in his misfortune." The remark is characteristic 
of the man. 

Mocquard also belonged to the few friends of Napoleon 
III, who had known his mother Queen Hortense, and who 
had devoted his life to the cause of the Bonapartes. He was 
one of the pleasantest men of his day, always on the alert 
to learn or to hear everything that could be useful to his 
Imperial master. Gifted with singular tact, he was able 
with advantage to come out of the most entangled and awk- 
ward situations. His reply to Berryer, who had written to 
him telling him that his political convictions prevented him 
from asking to be presented to the Emperor on his election 
to the French Academy, is well known, and proves his ability 
in that respect. The great advocate, in writing to Mocquard, 
had appealed to him as a former colleague. Napoleon's private 
secretary at once responded to his request, and gave him 
the most courteous and most respectful reproof, in which the 
dignity of his Sovereign and that of the great advocate were 
equally taken into account. 

" The Emperor," wrote Mocquard, " regrets that M. 
Berryer has allowed his political leanings to get the upper 
hand of his duties as Academician. M. Berryer's presence at 
the Tuileries would not have embarrassed His Majesty, as 
he seems to dread. From the height on which he finds himself 
raised, the Emperor would only have seen in the new Acade- 
mician an orator and a writer ; in to-day's adversary, the 
defender of yesterday. M. Berryer is perfectly free to obey 
the general practice imposed by the Academy, or to follow 
his personal repugnances." 

22 



Friends of the Sovereigns 

A friend of Berryer, who happened to be with him when 
that letter reached him, related to me later that that famous 
ornament of the French Bar for once in his life felt embar- 
rassed, and acknowledged his regret at thus having drawn upon 
himself a well deserved and tactfully administered rebuff. 

When Mocquard died his place was taken by M. Conti, 
also a clever man, who was in possession of the post at the 
time I arrived in Paris. He did not succeed in gaining the 
confidence of the Emperor, as his predecessor had done, and 
I believe never felt quite at ease in his difficult position. I 
do not know what became of him after the fall of the Empire. 

General Fleury was already Ambassador in St. Petersburg 
at the time of which I am speaking. He had been, and still 
was, one of the most intimate friends of the Emperor, but 
he was not liked by the Empress, whose influence he had 
always tried to thwart. Eugenie was delighted when he 
was sent on his foreign mission ; she had never got used to 
the General : perhaps he knew too many things relating to that 
distant time when Mademoiselle de Montijo had never dreamt 
that fate held a crown in reserve for her. And then one of the 
Empress's closest acquaintances, the Comtesse de Beaulain- 
court, the daughter of the Marshal de Castellane, and formerly 
Marquise de Contades, had an undying grudge against General 
Fleury. It must be owned that he had not behaved altogether 
well in regard to her, and she used her best endeavours to harm 
him in the mind of the impressionable Eugenie, to whom she 
represented the General as one of her worst enemies. This 
was not the case ; but Fleury had no sympathy for the Empress, 
and certainly did nothing to further her views or her opinions 
in regard to politics, as she would have liked him to do. To 
him is credited the most severe comment that ever was made 
on the subject of the marriage between the Emperor and 
the lovely Spaniard who had captivated his fancy ; that 

23 



France from Behind the Veil 

comment was revealed to the world through the indiscretion 
of Madame de Contades, as she was at that time. Fleury had 
been asked why he objected so much to his future Sovereign : 
" I do not like her," he replied, " because I feel that she will 
insist upon wearing her crown in her bed and her night-cap 
in public." This bitter remark being repeated to the person 
whom it most concerned, was never forgiven by her. 

Fleury, Persigny, and Morny had been the most trusted 
advisers of Napoleon III., but unfortunately I never had 
opportunity to meet any of them. With their removal from 
the political scene, the Empire lost its most solid supports. 
The ability of M. Rouher could not stave off the supreme 
calamity that was to cast it into the abyss ; and as for M. Emile 
Ollivier, about whom I shall have more to say presently, he 
had neither the energy nor the moral courage to resist the 
current that went against him and that swept away a regime. 

In general, when I look back upon those last two years 
of the Second Empire, and try to recapitulate all that I saw, 
I cannot find anyone, with the few exceptions already men- 
tioned, who was really the friend of either the Emperor or the 
Empress. Surrounded by flatterers, admirers, courtiers, they 
had around them no really devoted people willing to risk 
anything in order to prove their affection. The Tuileries 
seemed to be one vast Liberty Hall, inhabited by men and 
women who knew very well that they had but a short 
time before them to enjoy the good things of this world, 
and whose only care was how they could escape with the 
most advantage from situations which all the time they felt 
to be shaking under their feet. Indeed, the Court reminded 
one of a vast cuvee out of which everybody tried to snatch 
some prize. It was a case of eating, drinking and being merry, 
but without thinking that for all these things there would 
one day be a reckoning. 

24 



CHAPTER III 

FONTAINEBLEAU AND COMPIEGNE 

Though still a young man when I was appointed to Paris 
— a man of thirty-two years is considered to be quite young — 
I had already a considerable experience of the world, and knew 
the society of most European capitals, having been at every 
European Court. I was very well able, therefore, to judge 
of what I saw, and to form a reliable opinion, good or bad, 
of the people with whom I came into contact. 

I must confess at once that I arrived in France with certain 
prejudices against the regime, and I did not examine it at 
first with over-indulgent eyes. But as I grew to know the 
Emperor and the Empress well, many of these prejudices 
vanished. The kindness of the Emperor, and his boundless 
generosity, could not but impress favourably, and as for 
Eugenie, her powerful charm made one forget other sides 
of her character. When in their presence it was difficult 
to realise that they were Sovereigns, or to have the feeling, 
whether at the Tuileries, at Compiegne, or at Fontainebleau, 
that one was at a Royal Court. A mixture of formality and 
of gaiety without restraint was prevalent, which entirely upset 
one's notions of what should constitute the atmosphere of 
a Court. Eugenie was an incomparable hostess, even if some- 
times eccentric ; Napoleon was the most thoughtful of hosts, 
though restless at times, and showing some impatience at 
different vagaries indulged in by his guests ; still, though 
each was addressed as " Your Majesty," it was in much 

25 



France from Behind the Veil 

the same spirit that one would have said "Monsieur" or 
" Madame " ; deference was lacking. 

In spite of the shade of Bohemianism which presided 

over the annual gatherings at Compiegne and at Fontaine- 

bleau, the invitations were always coveted, and with reason, 

for a week spent at either place was certainly most enjoyable. 

The autumn season generally saw the Sovereigns at Compiegne, 

which the Empress liked very much, and there could be met 

all the celebrities of modern France and a good many foreigners, 

whom the Imperial couple liked to encourage to visit France, 

and on whom they lavished every attention. They were 

generally asked to stay a full week, and privileged persons 

were sometimes invited to extend their sojourn. Life was 

very pleasant in this old home of the Bourbon dynasty, and 

the liberty left to the guests to do what they Hked added to 

its charm. One rode, one hunted, one drove, and one 

flirted to one's heart's content, and the only thing which 

was asked was punctuality at meals and admiration for the 

beauty of the Empress. 

The exceeding charm and beauty of the Empress was 
never more seen to advantage than in one of her country 
homes, where she felt more at her ease than in Paris. She 
used to ask privileged persons among her guests to drink 
tea with her in the afternoon. On these occasions she appeared 
at her best, talking on every subject, and discussing all the 
new books. She rather prided herself on being what French 
people call "un bel esprit," and of caring for literature; she 
considered it a part of her duty ostensibly to interest herself 
in the literary and scientific movements of the day. She liked 
to make herself popular among writers and artists, of whom 
there was generally a good sprinkling at Compiegne. Among 
her favourites were Octave Feuillet, Merimee, and Carpeaux. 
More than once Carpeaux implored her to allow him to carve 

26 



Fontainebleau and Gompiegne 

her bust, to which, however, she would not agree, Merimee 
had been a friend of her mother's, the Countess de Montijo, 
and had known her as a httle girl ; indeed, people whispered 
softly that he had had a good deal to do with her elevation 
to the throne, having admirably advised her at that critical 
period of her existence when first she became the object of 
Napoleon's adoration. 

Merimee was a charming man in spite of his misanthropic 
tendencies and his fits of bad temper, which caused him 
sometimes to say the rudest things imaginable, but which 
in reality he did not mean at all. He was, however, a privileged 
person, being customarily forgiven words which would not have 
been tolerated in anyone else. He was, perhaps, amidst the 
crowd which congregated in the vast halls and galleries of Com- 
piegne, the one who judged most clearly what was going 
on around him, and I remember that one evening, when we 
were discussing the political situation, he suddenly asked 
me : " Et vous croyez que cela durera ? " ("And you think 
that all this will last ? ") Noticing my surprise, he did me the 
honour of a lengthy explanation : " You see, my friend, here 
in this beautiful France of ours we never look beyond the 
present day; we enjoy ourselves without any thought of what 
the morrow may bring. We have seen so many changes, 
so many revolutions, that we have entirely lost the feeling of 
stability, without which no nation can achieve really great 
things. In politics one must have either stability, faith in 
the principles which one is called upon to defend, or else 
enthusiasm like that felt by our troops at Marengo. Now can 
you imagine a spirit of enthusiasm for our master here ? " 
And he winked in the direction of the Emperor's private apart- 
ments. "He is good, and kind, and weak, but though the 
nation and the army shout * Vive I'Empereur ' when they see 
him, it is very doubtful whether they would sacrifice anything 

27 



France from Behind the Veil 

beyond the interests of their neighbours for him. And the 
Empress, she is as much to be pitied as she is to be envied. 
I am sorry to have to say so, because I am really attached to 
her, but what can one do ! She does not realise that she is 
not by birth the equal of the other Queens of Europe, and there 
lies her great mistake. She is so beautiful that one v^^ould 
have worshipped at once Mademoiselle de Montijo, but the 
nation could not bring itself to respect the Comtesse de Teba 
in the same way as had she been a Princess born. Now» 
don't betray me, please," he added, " but I know that you 
are discreet, and, besides, who minds the sayings of that 
old grumbler Merimee ! " 

This houtade left a deep impression on my mind at the 
time I heard it ; it resounded like the " Mene, Tekel, Upharsin " 
of the Empire, uttered as it was by a man who was well known 
to have personally a great and sincere devotion for the fair 
Spaniard whom he had helped to place on the throne of 
France. Poor Merimee was not destined to survive the fall 
of that Imperial regime of which he had been one of the 
strongest supporters. He died broken-hearted a few days 
after the disaster of Sedan, writing pathetically to one of his 
friends just before his end : "I have tried all my life to fight 
against prejudices, and to be a citizen of the world before 
being a Frenchman. But all these cloaks of philosophy 
are now of no avail to me. I bleed to-day of the same 
wounds as these idiots of Frenchmen, and I weep over their 
humiliation," 

Octave Feuillet was a great favourite of the Empress. He 
was a charming man, but always ill and always preoccupied 
with nursing his health, and his malade imaginaire. His 
novels v/ere undoubtedly pretty, and created a great sensation 
at the time. He was the fashionable novelist of his genera- 
tion, and certainly some of his works deserve to pass to posterity 

28 



Fontainebleau and Compiegne 

because of their fine observation. He was middle-class to 
the core, and this made him worship everything that seemed 
to be above him. He took himself far too much in earnest, 
and even carried so far his appreciation of his own merit 
that he wrote once or twice to the Emperor, proffering un- 
sought his advice in political matters. Napoleon HI. was far 
too kind to rebuff him, and sometimes even replied to him, 
flattering his vanity, as he was accustomed to flatter writers 
and journalists, in whom he saw the manufacturers of public 
opinion, and whom he liked to conciliate as far as possible- 
Octave Feuillet professed a great admiration for the Empress, 
and he must be given his due — he remained faithful to her after 
her fall. He was one of the few who went to Chislehurst to 
present their respects to the exiled and dethroned Sovereigns. 

In violent contrast to his behaviour can be instanced that 
of the architect Viollet-le-Duc, who, after having been loaded 
with money and kindnesses by the Emperor and his Consort, 
turned his back upon them after the fall of the Empire, and 
even tried to make excuses for ever having known them. 
Unfortunately, he was but one of many, and bitter must 
have been the thoughts of Napoleon HI. and Eugenie when 
they saw that all the good they had done, the boundless 
generosity they had exercised, had only made them a few 
more enemies among the ranks of those who owed them so 
much. 

Carpeaux, in spite of his rudeness, was very much appre- 
ciated at Compiegne, and I often saw him there, as indeed I 
met also most of the illustrious Frenchmen the Empire could 
boast of at that time. These celebrities, and the number of 
pretty women who were also invited, made the gatherings 
unique. The members of the fair sex who were nearly always 
present were the Princess Metternich, the pretty Comtesse 
Melanie de Pourtales, the Marquise de Galiffet, then separated 

29 



France from Behind the Veil 

from her husband, who had already struck up that strange 
friendship -with the Princesse de Sagan, nee Seilleres, which 
gave rise to so much talk later on. Mme. de Galiffet was one 
of the loveliest women of the Imperial Court, and certainly 
the one who knew the best how to dress. She was an elegante 
before everything else, and I believe cared even more for her 
dresses than for her lovers. Her relations with General Galiffet 
were most strange. They used to meet sometimes in society, 
and he was always most polite towards her ; it was even 
said that the warmest admirer the Marquise de Galiffet had 
ever had was her husband. This did not prevent them never 
agreeing upon any subject save one, and that, it was rumoured, 
reunited them sometimes, not under the same roof, but under 
the same tent, as the Marquise de Caux once said with more 
wit than kindness. 

Another habitue of Compiegne was the Baronne de Poilly. 
She was a daring horsewoman, an eccentric character, full 
of brusquerie and kindness, but not liked, and very much talked 
about. She was, with the Comtesse de Beaulaincourt, ex- 
Marquise de Contades, one of the most dreaded persons in 
the whole of Paris society. 

Speaking of Madame de Beaulaincourt reminds me of various 
episodes in that lady's career, which set me wondering how 
the strict Faubourg St. Germain, as well as the frivolous society 
of the Second Empire, could have taken her to their hearts in 
the way they did. She was bad for badness' sake, as unsparing 
in her words as in her judgments ; always on the look out for 
something evil to do, or something unpleasant to say. Full 
of wit with it all, this last circumstance only made her the 
more dangerous. She was a rare example of a vicious woman 
who had no charitable instincts ; it seemed as if she condemned 
others the more bitterly because she knew that there was 
needing much pardon in herself. Nevertheless, Madame de 

30 



Fontainebleau and Compiegne 

Beaulaincourt was one of the most remarkable personalities 
at the Court of the Emperor Napoleon III., and as such she 
deserves to be remembered. 

The members of the Cabinet and their wives were generally 
asked to Compiegne in turn. At Fontainebleau, where the 
Court used to spend the summer months, this was rarely 
the case. St. Cloud was too near Paris to be really pleasant 
as a summer residence. Fontainebleau was quite in the 
country, and its lovely forest afforded many opportunities 
lor riding, driving, or hunting, which appealed to Eugenie's 
tastes. There she used to live a family life free from the re- 
straints of the Court, with the guests whom she asked to share 
her vilUgiature. At Fontainebleau, too, the Emperor, always 
a great stickler for etiquette, allowed it to be relaxed, consider- 
ing his stay there as a kind of holiday. He was more often 
in the company of his guests than at Compiegne, and his 
presence was very much appreciated. When he liked. Napoleon 
III. could be a charming man and an interesting talker, but 
it was not often that he allowed himself to become expansive. 

Life at Fontainebleau as well as at Compiegne was almost 
uniform in its round of gaieties. The company assembled for 
breakfast at noon, after which the guests followed their own 
inclinations during the afternoon. A few privileged ones, 
however, were asked to drive or walk with the Empress, and 
afterwards to have tea with her. All guests enjoyed perfect 
liberty, but this did not prevent them from watching their 
neighbours to find out their little weaknesses, for gossip 
was rife both at Compiegne and at Fontainebleau, and many 
unpleasant rumours concerning the Emperor and the Empress 
were started there. The manners and customs that prevailed 
.among the recipients of the Imperial hospitality were publicly 
criticised, the feeling being that it would certainly have been 
better had more discrimination been exercised. There was 



France from Behind the Veil 

little dignity though much ceremony during these " series," 
as they used to be called, and the extreme liberty granted was 
the source of all kinds of unmerited rumours concerning what 
happened in those vast halls. Somehow it savoured of dese- 
cration to see the gay company of careless men and fashionable 
women who thronged Fontainebleau without giving a thought 
to the great events which its walls had witnessed. 

One evening at Fontainebleau, after the rest of the world 
had retired, I was returning late to my bedroom from an 
enjoyable stroll in the lovely park. There was a beautiful 
moon, and it lit up the old castle of Frangois I., with its many 
turrets, its old gables, its whole aspect speaking of the grandeur 
of many ages. I thought myself the only one to indulge in 
such an eccentricity, when suddenly I came face to face with 
the Chevalier Nigra, then one of the great admirers of the 
Empress, and a general favourite both at Court and in Society. 
Chevalier Nigra had been the private secretary of Count 
de Cavour, and ^^as considered one of the stars of Italian 
diplomacy. He professed the greatest devotion for Eugenie, 
knew exactly how to flatter her and thus to glean information 
as to what was going on in the French Cabinet. More clever 
than lovely Madame de Castiglione, who thought that one of 
her glances was sufficient to keep the Emperor enchained 
to her chariot, Nigra did not attempt to play the lover, but 
rather the worshipper of the Empress, whom he used to tell 
he had set upon a shrine whence he hoped she would condescend 
from time to time to smile upon him. He had all the subtlety 
of the Italian, and had read, and, what is better, thoroughly 
digested and understood, the philosophy expressed by Machia- 
velli in his works. He was an ardent patriot, and when he 
accepted the appointment to Paris it was with the firm 
intention of using his best endeavours to bring about the 
completion and recognition of Italian unity. 

32 



Fontainebleau and Compiegne 

Nigra was an extremely pleasant man, with a sufficient 
tincture of cynicism to make him amiable without being 
aggressive. He rarely spoke the truth, and never said what 
he thought ; but he had the talent of convincing people of 
his entire sincerity. A keen observer, he had judged better 
than any of his colleagues the frailty of the Imperial regime, 
and was only watching for the moment when the house of 
cards should collapse. On the evening I am referring to he 
was smoking a big cigar and walking slowly in the flower- 
garden which stretched in front of the private apartments 
of the palace, enjoying the scent of the roses, and from time 
to time raising his eyes towards the only row of windows 
still showing a light amidst the darkness that enveloped the 
venerable pile. 

When he saw me, he pointed upwards with his linger to 
these windows, saying at the same time ; 

" She is not sleeping; she is always the last one to go to 
rest." 

" I wonder what she is doing so late," I replied. 
" Thinking about her dresses, or the last sermon she has 
listened to," was the remark of Nigra. " How little the Empress 
understands her situation." 

" She gathers her roses whilst she can," was my reply^^ 
" Yes," retorted the Italian diplomatist, " and perhaps 
she does the best thing under the circumstances ; all this 
cannot last." 

" You do not believe in the durability of the Empire ? " 
I asked him. 

" No," was the reply. " I do not believe in it at all. 

The Italian question will overthrow it sooner than one thinks." 

" You do not admit the possibility of a war between 

Italy and France on the subject of the integrity of the Holy 

See ? " I inquired. 

D 33 



France from Behind the Veil 

" Certainly I don't," said Nigra, " but I know one thing ; 
the Emperor has no likelihood of keeping his crown, or of 
passing it to his son, unless he makes up his mind to fulfil 
the promises which he gave, perhaps in an unguarded moment, 
and without thinking of the consequences, but which he gave 
all the same. This hesitation of his has not only entirely 
destroyed his popularity in Italy, but it has also thrown 
Italian politicians into the arms of his foes. You see, we cannot 
prevent the natural course of events taking place ; the 
supremacy of the Pope has had its day, and the Bourbons 
also have achieved their destiny. Italy, if she is to be re- 
generated, can only be so under the sway of an Italian dynasty. 
The Bourbons are not Italians ; they are French, with a large 
admixture of Austrian blood, and their temperament is dis- 
tinctly hostile to that of the Italian people. The House of 
Savoy, on the other hand, has everything that appeals to the 
mind and to the imagination of my country ; it will welcome 
Victor Emmanuel with joy wherever he may appear. You 
must not forget, either, a thing of which people generally 
lose sight : Italians are superstitious ; they are not at all 
religious, and they more or less look upon the Pope in the 
same light as they do the small princes and dukes who have 
ruled them for so long. Temporal Power has far more prestige 
abroad than is the case with us, and Italians will only feel 
wrathful against those who may try to force it upon them. 
The people of Italy instinctively guess that the Emperor is 
afraid to go against the popular feeling in France, and that 
he win at a given moment refuse to help their ambitions if 
he finds that they clash with his own personal interests. That 
is where he makes his mistake," continued Nigra, who had 
become excited, a rare thing with him ; " that is where he 
makes his mistake. If he upheld our national ambitions he 
would find us at his side when his hour of peril will strike, 

34 



Fontainebleau and Compi^gne 

whereas now we shall merely look on and do what he did 
in 1859 — seek our own advantage, heedless of the danger in 
which he may find himself placed." 

I looked at him attentively. 

"So you believe that this hour of danger is fast approach- 
ing ? " I asked. 

" Of course it is," was the reply; " its warning rang long 
ago, after Sadowa, and when the bullets of Juarez struck 
the breast of Maximilian at Queretaro. It is only blind 
people, blinded by vanity, like those who are in power here, 
who do not see the menace that the armaments of Prussia 
constitute for the whole of Europe." 

" You do not believe in the readiness of the French army 
in case of a war ? " I asked. 

" Do you ? " retorted Nigra. 

I remained silent. 

" No, I do not believe in it," he went on slowly, " the 
army is not capable of strong resistance to a well disciplined 
foe. How can an army be so in a country where politics 
are paramount ? You see there is no real patriotism in France, 
there is only chauvinism, and that is not quite the same thing. 
The Frenchman will not admit that he can be conquered by 
anyone. Why, we have seen it at Solferino, where our troops 
fought desperately, and were not even thanked by the Em- 
peror, whose soldiers could never have held out alone against 
the shock of the Austrian regiments. When we came up and 
decided the fate of the battle they were already giving way. 
You must not forget one thing, the French soldier gets dis- 
couraged at his first reverse, and most certainly the fate of 
the next campaign will be decided in its very first days. 

" The Emperor also is no longer what he once was," went 
on Nigra; "he is ill, broken down, either by disease or by 
worry, he has lost very much of his former elasticity, and 

35 



France from Behind the Veil 

is more than ever undecided in the resolutions he is called 
upon to make. The Empress, on the other hand, believes 
herself to possess political ability, and is encouraged therein 
by people who see a source of advantage for them in a Regency 
over which she would be called upon to preside. The death of 
the Emperor, which ten years ago would have been regarded 
in the light of a calamity, not only for France but for Europe, 
is no longer dreaded, because the feeling is that he has survived 
himself, that his lucky star has left him. The convinced 
Bonapartists think that a Liberal Empire is an anachronism ; 
but the Emperor, who was always more or less a conspirator, 
dreams, on the contrary, of establishing his dynasty on new 
lines, in which his strong sympathies towards Liberalism will 
take the upper hand. When once his entourage realise this 
fact, which so far they do not yet suspect, they will do their 
best to bring matters to a crisis, and by means of a foreign 
war divert Napoleon's mind from his present intentions. 
And that war " 

He stopped and looked at me significantly. 

" That war won't find Italy the ally of France," I remarked. 

" Certainly not, because there would be no necessity for 
it. Why should we lose either men or money when nothing 
could be gained by it ? What we want is Rome, and Rome 
we shall get all the same, whether Napoleon allows it or not. 
One cannot stop the evolution of history." 

" But she — ^what will she do ? " I asked, pointing up to 
the windows we had been looking at a few moments before, 
when, as if in reply to my question, the light suddenly 
went out. 

Nigra shrugged his shoulders, as if this matter did not 
concern him at all. 

" She will never resign herself to her fall, should such a 
thing occur," I remarked. 

36 



Fontainebleau and Gompiegne 

" Oh yes, she will do so," was the answer. " She will not 
even attempt to fight against her fate should it prove inimical 
to her," he concluded philosophically. 

It was during the last time the Imperial Court was at 
Fontainebleau that this remarkable conversation took place, 
and it impressed me so much that I noted it down at once 
when I reached my room. I was to think about it more than 
once subsequently, and many years later, meeting Count Nigra, 
as he had become then, in St. Petersburg, where he had been 
appointed Italian Ambassador, I reminded him of it, and asked 
him to tell me what had really been the conduct of the Empress 
Eugenie on that fateful 4th of September when he and Prince 
Metternich urged her to fly before the revolutionaries. 

" She did exactly what I told you that night at Fontaine- 
bleau," replied Nigra; "she declared that she would not go 
against the wishes of the country, and that, since it wanted 
her to leave Paris, she would do so. Mind, she knew nothing 
as to whether this was true or not ; no one had told her that 
the country wanted her to go, one had simply drawn her 
attention to the fact that her life was in danger, and she 
believed it at once. Metternich at one moment asked her 
whether she would not take a few things with her, but she 
replied that it was not necessary, and she left the Tuileries 
without even taking a pocket handkerchief." 



37 



i J CHAPTER IV 

Political Men of the Time 

I BECAME very well acquainted with both M. Rouher and 
M. Emile OUivier. The latter inspired me with warm feelings 
of friendship. He was essentially an honest man, and his 
mistakes were more the faults of others than his own. He 
never had the opportunity really to show of what stuff he 
was made. Though possessed of the best intentions in the 
world, he was always misunderstood and suspected, even by 
the very people who should have had confidence in him 
and in his sense of justice and impartiality. 

When he was called upon to form a Cabinet he was met 
by the antagonism of the Empress, who did not approve of 
the new trend in politics, which had replaced the one in- 
augurated at the coti^ d'etat. She hated the idea of the 
slightest diminution in the Imperial power and prestige. 
She did not believe in the necessity of concessions to public 
opinion, and she was deeply incensed to find that her ideas 
on the subject were not shared by her husband, who was more 
or less under the influence of his new Prime Minister. Eugenie, 
who was superstitious, declared to her friends that she had 
the feeling when she spoke with Emile Ollivier that he was 
going to be fatal to her. 

The fact is that fate went against the new Prime Minister. 
M. OUivier had hardly been in power when occurred an event 
almost forgotten to-day, but which was to sound the first 

38 



Political Men of the Time 

knell of the Empire. Prince Pierre Bonaparte shot Victor 
Noir. 

Till that fatal day very few people knew anything about 
Prince Pierre. He was a distant cousin of the Emperor, 
with whom his relations had never been either affectionate 
or even friendly. He was the black sheep of a family which 
at that time could ill afford a setback, and his political 
opinions, coupled with an irregular connection with a person 
belonging to an inferior class, and whom he was ultimately 
to make his wife, had led to his disgrace by the head of his 
house. Napoleon IH. ignored the existence of this incon- 
venient kinsman, who lived in a little house at Auteuil. 

Prince Pierre was a true Corsican in character : violent, 
and given to strong fits of passion. He professed, together 
with most Radical political opinions and strong Republican 
sympathies, an immense worship for the memory of his great 
ancestor, the first Napoleon, and a great respect for the family 
traditions of the Bonapartes. And when one day, in a small 
newspaper edited at Bastia, he chanced across a very vile 
attack on the family, he got into a rage, and replied to it 
in the same paper by an equally virulent attack directed 
against the author. 

The matter did not end there, for very soon the Parisian 
press took part, and the occasion was used by the enemies 
of the Imperial regime in order to air their grievances against 
it. At last one of the editors of an opposition paper called 
La Revanche, M. Paschal Grousset, who later on was to acquire 
a sorry celebrity during the excesses of the Commune, sent 
two of his friends to Prince Pierre, to request him either to 
apologise in person or else to fight. 

What happened during the interview no one will ever 
know. The versions given by the Prince and that of M. 
Ulric de Fonville, who together with Victor Noir had called 

39 



France from Behind the Veil 

at Auteuil at the request of Paschal Grousset, differ entirely 
as to what passed. The result, however, was the murder 
of Noir by the cousin of Napoleon III. 

This event, occurring as it did at a moment when the 
Empire was being attacked on all sides and already tottering, 
added considerably to the difficulties under which the Emperor 
was labouring. Unfortunately, neither he nor his responsible 
advisers calculated its consequences. Instead of following 
the advice given by M. Rouher, who was of opinion that 
Prince Pierre should have been imprisoned in a fortress until 
his crime had been forgotten by the public. Napoleon III. 
decided to have his cousin tried by a special court which 
assembled at Tours. The court acquitted the accused, which 
only added to the general exasperation against the govern- 
ment. M. OUivier was reproached with having lent himself 
to a travesty of justice, in order to shield a relative of the 
Sovereign from a justly deserved punishment, and was accused 
by his former friends and followers of allowing himself to fall 
under the influence of the Court. 

This was gall and wormwood to that sincere politician, 
and the bitterness which resulted on both sides made the 
head of the Cabinet lose that calmness which, more than 
anyone else, he required in the difficult task that lay before 
him. 

As to Prince Pierre, the cause of all this perturbation, 
he left France after his acquittal, settled in Brussels, and 
after the fall of the Empire married the mother of his children, 
and spent his life in comparative poverty until the marriage 
of his son Roland Bonaparte with the youngest daughter 
of the celebrated Blanc, of Monaco fame, which brought 
back financial prosperity to that branch of the family. He 
did not enjoy it long, because he died a few months later, 
and was followed very quickly to the grave by his young 

40 



Political Men of the Time 

daughter-in-law. His widow, the washerwoman whose intro- 
duction into his family Napoleon III. had deeply resented, 
went on living with her son Roland, devoting herself to him 
and to his baby daughter. She never could learn what manners 
were, but she was kind-hearted in spite of her vulgarity, and 
did good in every way she could. Prince Roland, on his side, 
had the tact never to be ashamed of the humble origin of his 
mother, to surround her always with the greatest respect, 
and to treat her with the most tender affection. She did the 
honours of his house as well as she could, and unfortunately 
for her, died before the marriage of her granddaughter, the 
Princess Marie Bonaparte, with Prince George of Greece, an 
event which, had she only lived long enough to witness it, 
would have proved the supreme happiness of her life. 

This digression has led me far away from M. Emile Ollivier. 
I had the opportunity to see him on the day following the 
acquittal of Prince Pierre Bonaparte, and was surprised to 
find him considerably irritated against M. Rouher, whom he 
accused of trying to influence the Emperor in a direction 
contrary to the resolutions which the Sovereign had taken 
in conjunction with Ollivier himself. He seemed as if he wanted 
to find someone on whom he might vent his anger at his 
own mistakes. A phrase which he uttered on that day, but 
to which I did not pay any attention at the moment, struck 
me later on as the expression of a desire to regain a popularity 
he had lost : 

" II nous faut maintenant a tout prix regagner notre 
popularite " (" We must now at all costs win back our 
popularity"). 

It was immediately after these troubled days that the 
important question of the Plebiscite was raised. It was 
violently opposed by M. Thiers and his followers, and also 
by several of the Emperor's personal friends, who dreaded 

41 



France from Behind the Veil 

what it might mean to him. Even when its result ratified the 
country's confidence in the Empire and in the Emperor, 
they were not inspired with any greater confidence in the 
future. I remember that at a dinner which took place at 
the house of Marshal Canrobert and at which I was present, 
M. Rouher, who was among the guests, remarked sadly that 
there was nothing to be so very proud of in the results of 
the Plebiscite, because Paris had proved by its vote that it 
was distinctly hostile to the Government. " Et c'est Paris 
qui fait les revolutions et renverse ies gouvernements " 
("And it is Paris which makes revolutions and upsets 
governments"), he concluded with a sigh. 

Without being on intimate terms with him, I liked M. Rouher 
exceedingly. For one thing, he was really the Emperor's 
friend, and for another, when all is said and done, he was a 
statesman. It is not to be denied that he was ambitious and 
liked power for power's sake. He did not care so much for the 
welfare of France as he did for that of the Bonaparte dynasty, 
but he had a clear apprehension of all the political necessities 
of the moment, and saw farther than those who were 
listened to with greater attention than himself. He did not 
perhaps like the Empress very much, but he remained faithful 
to her, and out of respect for the place which she occupied 
and the crown which she wore, always tried to uphold her 
prestige. He loved Napoleon IH. truly and sincerely, and 
always gave him disinterested advice. Like all strong men 
he had enemies, and like all sincere people he was accused of 
dissimulation and intrigue by those who did not understand 
that to tell the truth is sometimes the best way not to be 
believed. 

He has been accused of having gathered immense riches 
whilst he was in power. I can testify that this has not been 
the case by far, and that when the " Second Emperor," as 

42 



Political Men of the Time 

he was sometimes called, died, he was comparatively a poor 
man. 

Socially, M. Rouher was charming, and his conversation 
was most enjoyable. He had what French people call " le 
mot pour rire," as well as a marvellous skill for parrying ques- 
tions addressed to him, and replying without answering any- 
thing. He had dignity, and gave constant proofs of it in 
his presidency of the Senate, where he displayed the rarest 
qualities of tact and skill. 

Talking of tact, leads me to say a few words respecting 
a personage who, to his own misfortune, as well as to that of 
other people, did not know the significance of that word. 
It is of Prince Napoleon, Prince Plon Plon, as the Prussians 
called him, that I am thinking. 

This first cousin of the Emperor was certainly a remark- 
able personage, and undoubtedly a most clever man. But 
evidently, also, a bad fairy had presided at his birth, and 
blighted with her magic wand all the great qualities with which 
nature had endowed him. His was essentially a restless nature, 
incapable of contentment, even when it had what it wanted. 
Had he been Emperor he would have lived in opposition to 
himself, faute de mieux. Of ambition he had a lot ; of desires 
and passions even more, but he lacked an evenly balanced 
mind, and that most essential of all qualities, submission before 
accomplished facts and the things that human will cannot 
change. His intelligence was sharp, bright, and clear ; he 
was capable of resolution, and had initiative in his character. 
He was gifted with rare eloquence, and, possessing also an 
easy pen, wrote pages that great writers would have felt 
proud to sign. He was brilliant, too, in conversation, and 
to all these talents he added qualities that, joined with the 
prestige of his name, and of his position, might have called 
him to great destinies, could he but have learned how to 

43 



France from Behind the Veil 

use them. His existence was essentially one aptly described 
by the French expression " une vie manquee," and he was his 
own worst enemy. Always in opposition to his cousin he 
succeeded in rousing in revolt against himself not only the 
advisers of the Crown, but also the Emperor, and especially 
the Empress. Eugenie, with whom he had been ardently 
in love when she was still Mademoiselle de Monti] o, was the 
object of his especial animosity later on, and he never lost 
an opportunity of displaying it, forgetting even that she was 
a lady, and that he should have shown himself a gentleman 
in his behaviour towards her. Among the survivors of the 
time none will have forgotten the scandal he caused at Com- 
piegne when he refused to propose the health of the Empress 
on the day of St. Eugenie, when the Emperor asked him 
to do so. On that occasion as on many others, he quite 
lost sight of the politeness which a Sovereign and a 
woman has the right to expect, even from her worst 
enemies. 

Prince Napoleon was all his life in opposition to somebody 
or something, and by poetic justice before his death he was 
to experience the sorrow of finding his own son oppose him 
and his principles. Deception dogged his footsteps, disappoint- 
ment seemed to pursue him, for which he himself was partly 
responsible, and partly the victim of circumstances. He is 
more to be pitied than anything else. His life seemed to be 
spent in seeing withdrawn from his lips the cup that a wicked 
fairy kept presenting to him in order to tempt him with 
its contents. 

A good many of Prince Napoleon's defects proceeded 
from a spirit of bravado, such as that which distinguished 
the Italian condottieri of old. He took a vicious pleasure 
in appearing to be what in reality he was not, and in defying 
public opinion, as in the case of his famous Good Friday 

44 



Political Men of the Time 

dinners, when he asked his best friends to help him to eat 
ham and roast beef on an occasion when the gayest of gay 
Parisians would not have dreamt of touching anything else 
but fish. His unorthodoxy was more affected than sincere, 
more frequently it was adopted because it amused him to 
shock people. 

His wife, the virtuous Princess Clotilde of Savoy, was 
a saint in her life and habits. She had absolutely no bond 
of sympathy with him, and made him always feel that duty 
alone kept her at his side. She had great, noble, and even 
grand qualities, but her disposition was neither amiable, 
nor sympathetic, and Prince Napoleon should have had a 
wife he could love, rather than one whom he could only 
respect. 

When he died alone in Rome, within a stone's throw 
from the palace where his distinguished relative, Madame Mere, 
had ended her sad existence, and within sight of the chapel 
where rests the mortal remains of the Princess Borghese, 
nee Pauline Bonaparte, he was on terms of intimate friendship 
with a lady well known in Paris society, the Marquise de 

, whose salon is to this day the rendezvous of a certain 

circle of people, among whom may be seen some enjoying a 
great social position, and about which I shall have something 
more to say later on. This lady was passionately attached 
to Prince Napoleon, for whom she had sacrificed a good deal. 
She had been a beautiful woman, gifted with a splendid voice, 
admired by many, and loved by not a few. Her devotion 
to the Prince was admirable, but her presence at his bedside 
robbed his last hours of dignity. 

His widow, the Princess Clotilde, retired to the castle of 
Moncalieri, where she, too, died a few years ago, after having 
seen her eldest son. Prince Victor, married to the Princess 
Clementine of Belgium. Her youngest boy. Prince Louis 

45 



France from Behind the Veil 

Napoleon, after serving for several years in the ranks of 
the Russian army, lives now in comparative solitude, at the 
castle of Prangins in Switzerland, having inherited the fortune 
of his aunt, the Princess Mathilde. As for Princess Clotilde's 
daughter, the Princess Letitia Bonaparte, she married, under 
rather singular circumstances, her uncle, the Duke of Aosta, 
the brother of King Humbert of Italy. When I use the 
words " singular circumstances," I am alluding to the 
popular belief that the Duke had no particular intention 
of marrying his niece. The Princess Letitia, however, 
had inherited the ardent temperament of her father. Prince 
Napoleon. The Duke died shortly after the marriage. At 
present the widowed Duchess of Aosta spends part of her 
time in Turin, and part in Paris, where she has an apart- 
ment in the Hotel de Castiglione, Rue de Rivoli, and enjoys 
herself as much as she possibly can, being a general favourite 
everywhere. 

After the Plebiscite, it was generally felt that some changes 
in the Cabinet of M. Emile Ollivier had become imperative, 
especially as its principal members, M. Buffet and M. Dam, 
were not entirely in accord with M. Ollivier, being more or 
less under the influence of Thiers, who had been a resolute 
adversary of the Plebiscite. The portfolio of Foreign 
Affairs, becoming vacant owing to the retirement of Comte 
Napoleon Daru, was offered to the Due de Gramont, who 
accepted. 

The Due de Gramont, among all the people who had 
rallied to the Empire, was the one whose adherence had caused 
the most pleasure at the Tuileries. He had been the favourite 
of the Duchess d'Angouleme, the daughter of Louis XVI. 
and of Marie Antoinette, and had inspired such a deep affection 
in that severe Princess, that she had left him a large fortune, 
from which he derived an income of about one million francs. 

46 



Political Men of the Time 

All his family traditions were connected with those of the 
House of Bourbon, and one would have thought that nothing 
could have made him swerve from his allegiance to the Comte 
de Chambord. When he forsook his former masters, and 
enlisted among the followers of the Napoleonic dynasty, there 
was great rejoicing at this unhoped-for and unexpected 
defection, and great bitterness at Frohsdorf. The Empress 
Eugenie lavished her best and most amiable smiles on the 
descendant of the famous Corisande, and very soon the Duke 
found himself the cherished guest at all the festivities that 
took place, either at Fontainebleau or at Compiegne, or the 
Tuileries. 

He was made an ambassador at Vienna, no one knew why, 
presumably for no other reason than that it was necessary 
to make something out of him, and to shower honours and 
dignities on his head. He did not make himself liked in Austria, 
and the statesmen with whom he found himself thrown into 
contact did not form a high opinion of his diplomatic talents. 
He felt himself secretly despised, and being of an ambitious 
turn of mind, he wanted to do something very striking in 
order to make himself appreciated by others to the same 
degree as he appreciated himself. 

It was with joy he accepted the portfolio of Foreign Affairs, 
and the first time he presented himself before Eugenie after 
his appointment he told her rather theatrically : " Les 
interets de la France ont ete remis en de bonnes mains par 
I'Empereur, Madame, soyez en sure " (" The interests of 
France have been confided by the Emperor into good hands, 
rest assured of that, Madame"). 

I did not know the Due de Gramont well, and for that 
reason refrain from judging him. He has been accused of 
being the most guilty among the many guilty people to whom 
the responsibility of the unfortunate Franco-German War 

47 



y 



France from Behind the Veil 

may be attributed. Doctor Evans, in the very interesting 
memoirs published after his death, relates that at the time 
of the Duke's appointment at the head of foreign affairs, a 
foreign statesman whom he knew well used the following 
ominous words : " Believe me, this nomination is the fore- 
warning of a Franco-German war." 

It would not be fair to go as far as that, but I will say 
that the Duke was attacked more than any of his colleagues 
with the folie des grandeurs. Moreover, he was suffering acutely 
from the national vanity which felt itself thoroughly convinced 
that nothing could resist the courage of the French army. 
It did not strike him that this courage would be of no avail 
in the presence of the perfect discipline of the foe it would 
have to meet. 

I must say, when I look back on this period which preceded 
the war, that a general uneasiness had pervaded the public 
mind ever since the constitution of the Ministry presided 
over by Emile Ollivier. No one trusted it, even among the 
personal friends of its head, and as a very clever woman, 
the Vicomtesse de Janze, now Princesse de Lucinge, said 
at the time : " Its enemies do not trust it, and its sup- 
porters do not like it." The words were cruel, but very 
true. 

The last twelve months of the Empire's existence saw 
vanish from the political, and indeed from this earthly scene, 
three men who had once played a considerable part in the 
world, and whose names are remembered to this day : Mont- 
alembert, Berryer, and Lamartine. I never saw Lamartine, 
but had the honour to know Montalembert well, and to have 
been received often by Berryer, whose great figure consider- 
ably impressed me. It was impossible to feel for him anything 
else but the deepest, the most sincere respect. He was an 
admirable example of fidelity to principles, of convictions 

48 



Political Men of the Time 

that the vicissitudes of life cannot change, and that even the 
errors of those who represent them cannot weaken. He died 
as he had lived, a Legitimist, believing in the divine right 
of kings, and determined to uphold his ideals to the end. 
Throughout his career he retained a wide sympathy in his 
estimates of men and of things, and an indulgence for the 
imperfections of those with whom he came into contact. 
Though he would permit no compromise with his own con- 
science, he realised very well that other people were different, 
and that he must make allowances. Though very disdainful, 
he was not vindictive in his old age, whatever he might have 
been in his youth, and the admirable serenity which pervaded 
all his judgments and opinions reminded me very often of 
the beautiful sunset of a beautiful day. 

Montalembert, though broken by illness more than by 
old age, had, nevertheless, kept some of that brilliant and 
caustic wit for which he had been famous, and which had 
amused me so much when I first saw him in the early 'sixties. 
He was of that school of French Catholics who had never 
been able to shake off the influence of Lamennais, and to 
whom the exuberance of men like Veuillot was simply in^ 
sufferable. The question of the Papal infallibility, x^'hich 
had been submitted by Pius IX. to the Vatican Council 
just before his death, had been the last great preoccupation of 
Montalembert, who could not reconcile himself to what, in 
his eyes, was a disastrous measure. His religion was of the 
broadest, and in his last years he looked at things with less 
partisan enthusiasm, and more clearness of judgment, I 
believe that in his inmost heart he regretted sometimes having 
violently separated himself from Lamennais, with whom he 
had worked on the famous paper UAvenir. He never owned 
it, however; he always said that intentions were what must 
be considered and thought of, and that it was by their inten- 
E 49 



France from Behind the Veil 

tions, more than by their actions, that people ought to be 
judged. In his way Charles de Montalembert was just as 
great a figure as Berryer, whom he only survived by a few 
months. 

As for Lamartine, his death brought back to the public 
mind all the events which had preceded the proclamation of 
the Second Empire, and that period during which he had 
been at the head of the Republic, whose triumph he was not 
destined to see. Cruel material losses had reduced him almost 
to penury, and his only means of existence was a pension 
which, unknown to many, he received from the private purse 
of the Emperor, who had had the delicacy to extend it to 
him in such a way that the poor poet never knew to whom 
he owed the gift. 

This reminds me of one of the nicest remarks that Napoleon 
III. ever made in his life. When he was asked why he insisted 
so much on Lamartine never learning who was his secret 
benefactor, the Emperor replied that " France owed so much 
to M. de Lamartine, that it would be a great shame if 
he was made to feel he had need to be grateful to its 
Sovereign." 

The year 1869 had come to an end under a cloud, which 
even the Empress's triumphs in Egypt and at Constantinople 
had not brightened. Napoleon IIL was worried, not only 
by the political situation, but also by the state of his health. 
Notwithstanding the absence of his Consort he invited people 
to Compiegne as usual, and there several persons besides 
myself noticed that he looked ill and tired, and that his eyes 
had an anxious expression which had never been observable 
before. He showed himself even more affectionate than usual 
towards his son, and was heard sometimes to sigh whilst watch- 
ing him. Nevertheless, no one suspected that anything was 
radically wrong, and not a single man or woman among those 

50 



Political Men of the Time 

who were gathered in the Castle thought that it was the last 
time that they would be the guests of the Sovereign who 
welcomed them with such kindness and affability. Among 
all those who passed their hours in amusement in the Salle 
des Gardes, or in the long gallery where meals were served, 
not one recognised that a hand was already writing on the 
wall the same fatal words that appeared during the Baby- 
lonian monarch's last banquet. 



51 



CHAPTER V 

Before the Storm 

When the news of the candidature of Prince Leopold of 
HohenzoUern to the Spanish throne reached me, together 
with a letter from my Ambassador urging my return to Paris, 
I was staying in a little village on the coast of Normandy. 
Though I started at once for the capital, I could hardly bring 
myself to believe in the possibility of a war between France 
and Prussia. The thing appeared to me to be quite impossible, 
especially in view of a conversation I had had with the Emperor 
immediately after the results of the Plebiscite of May, 1870, 
had become known. I had ventured to offer to the Sovereign 
my congratulations upon the new triumph he had obtained. 
Napoleon III. seemed also delighted, and though it was most 
unusual for him to be demonstrative, yet he did not, on that 
occasion, attempt to hide what he was feeling, going so far 
as to tell me that the results of the Plebiscite in his opinion 
" had not only consolidated the dynasty, but also had done 
away with the legend that represented him as desirous of a 
foreign war in order to add to his prestige." " No one can 
say so at present," added the Emperor, " because, after 
France has so positively affirmed its allegiance to the Empire, 
it would be madness for me to risk losing popularity through 
a war which, even if victorious, would always materially 
impoverish the country." 

Napoleon III. did not seem to have noticed that 
M. Rouher had at once observed that the vote of Paris had 

52 



Before the Storm 

been distinctly hostile to him, and that as things were organised, 
it was Paris which overthrew dynasties and governments. 

But that wisdom which is born of attentive observa- 
tion of the events of the world, as well as of outward 
and sometimes insignificant circumstances that lead on to 
their development, seemed to be absent from the thoughts 
of the principal politicians who, at that particular moment 
of her history, held in their hands the destinies of France. 
Neither the Emperor nor his responsible advisers saw farther 
than the victory of the moment, and they all rejoiced together 
at the new triumph which they had won for themselves, as well 
as for the party which they represented. 

A few days after the Plebiscite, I happened to be calling 
on a social celebrity, the Countess de Castiglione, about 
whom so much has been written and said. Nature had been 
generous to her in many ways, but she was not destined to 
keep her fairness much longer than a rose its freshness. At 
the time of which I am speaking, she had barely reached 
her thirtieth year, and was already the ghost of her former 
self. I don't think I have ever met a woman who faded so 
quickly; I have often thought about it, and come to the 
conclusion that her beauty was so dazzling that it obliterated 
the imperfections it possessed, just as the Neapolitan or 
Sicilian sun prevents us from noticing aught else but the 
brilliance of the places it lights up with its rays. At the 
first glance, her loveliness literally took one's breath away, 
as it did mine the first time I saw her in 1868, when already 
she was going down hill. I can therefore imagine what she 
must have been at the time she first startled Paris by her 
glorious complexion and extraordinary beauty, and conquered 
the senses if not the heart of the Emperor. 

Madame de Castiglione, without being the very clever 
woman she has been represented by some, nor the stupid one 

53 



France from Behind the Veil 

she has been described by others, was possessed of an intelli- 
gence that was certainly above the average, but completely 
spoiled, her severe critics said, by an inordinate vanity, which 
prostrated her at the feet of her own beauty, and made every- 
thing in her life subservient to it. She firmly believed that 
she had only to show herself to conquer, and in a certain 
sense it was quite true, until the numerous victims of her 
charms learned to know her ^^•ell. She had been sent to France 
by her cousin, the great Cavour, with a mission to influence 
Napoleon III. in favour of the cause of Italian independence. 
In a certain sense she succeeded, though much of her success 
can be attributed to the personal sympathies of the Emperor 
as well as to the rash promises of which had been so generous 
in regard to the various secret societies and associations with 
which he had been connected in his youth. But he was a 
master in the art of flattery, and it pleased his fancy to allow 
the young and lovely woman to think that she, and she alone, 
had been the means of Italy attaining her liberty. Madame 
de Castiglione thereafter took herself mi serieux, and believed 
she was a political heroine. 

Later on, however, clouds came to obscure the horizon of 
her successes ; the sensation caused by the lovely Italian 
very soon vanished, and though she was talked about a great 
deal in society, though painters still raved about her, and old 
men devoured her with their eyes, whilst young ones sighed 
at her feet, though women grew green with envy \\hen they 
saw her enter a room, certain it is that her success was neither 
a long nor a permanent one. As a dream she flitted through 
that brilliant, frivolous society of the Second Empire, and as 
a dream she vanished into the darkness of the night that 
overtook it. 

The curious thing in the career of Madame de Castiglione 
was the way in which she used to come and go, the eclipses 

54 



Before the Storm 

her personality underwent, and the notoriety that, now and 
then, arose in regard to her. There had been a day when 
she was asked to leave France altogether, but then she very 
soon returned to it, more arrogant, more haughty, more 
than ever ardent in resuming a political role. But she did 
not like Napoleon III., whom, perhaps, she did not forgive for 
the hght-heartedness with which, after all, he had treated 
her. Though she would never have owned to it, she knew in 
her inmost heart that he had taken her as he would have taken 
any other pretty woman weak enough to have been dazzled. 
Madame de Castiglione was then in the glory of her youth 
and beauty, and she may well be forgiven. Principles she 
had few, religion and morals still less, or she would not, upon 
more occasions than one, have forgotten the great name she 
bore, or the high social position she enjoyed, and accepted, 
for instance, the banknotes of Lord Hertford, and of many 
others. 

A curious trait in that celebrated woman's character 
was her pride in what others generally hid from the eyes of 
the world. A characteristic anecdote can be told on this 
subject. One day, as one of the very few friends she had 
left was talking with her of that period of the Empire when 
she had been its brightest star, suddenly Madame de Castig- 
lione exclaimed : "I shall take care that even after I am dead 
the world shall know how great I was whilst it lasted " ; and 
with a cynicism such as she alone would have been capable of, 
she rang the bell, and turning towards the maid who had 
appeared in answer to it, " Luisa," she said, " montrez a 
Monsieur, la chemise de nuit de Compiegne." And when an 
elaborate garment all batiste and lace was brought to her, 
she added : "I shall leave instructions to bury it with me." 

To come back to what I was saying at the beginning of 
this chapter, I had called upon Madame de Castiglione just 

55 



France from Behind the Veil 

after the Plebiscite, and naturally the conversation turned 
towards that event. The Countess listened very seriously 
to all the remarks exchanged between the two or three people 
who were present in the room, and at last surprised us con- 
siderably by saying : " You are all mistaken ; the Plebiscite 
will not consolidate the dynasty. Up to now neither Italy 
nor Prussia thought that it could maintain itself d la longue 
in France, where it was firmly believed that no political regime 
was able to last beyond a few years. The results of the 
Plebiscite have proved that this conviction was an erroneous 
one ; and the consequences will be that both these nations 
will use their best endeavours to inveigle the Emperor into 
a war. It is very well known that France is unprepared. 
Such an event will naturally throw her back into a state of 
revolution, and for a time will wipe her off the European 
slate." 

No reply Mas made to this extraordinary remark, but when 
we went out together with Alphonse Rothschild, who had 
been one of those who had heard her, he turned to me and said 
with the clear insight of a financier, combined with the clever- 
ness of a diplomat and his experience of the world : " How 
that woman hates the Emperor." 

And now as I was hastening back to Paris on that July 
day of the year 1870, I remembered both the remark of the 
Baron and the tone of animosity with which the Countess 
de Castiglione had spoken on that occasion, and something 
like apprehension suddenly seized me, apprehension I did 
not know of what, but of a danger which I felt rather than 
saw, swooping down upon this brilliant society of the Second 
Empire, which I had grown to like so much and so well. 

I reached Paris late in the evening of July the 16 th, twenty- 
four hours after war had been declared, and was struck by 
the extraordinary aspect of the people who crowded the 

56 



Before the Storm 

boulevards. Much to my surprise they were singing the 
forbidden Marseillaise, and altogether they presented an 
excited appearance. The cafes were full, and from time to 
time someone would stand up, and scream loudly : "A 
Berlin ! " whereupon the mob took up that cry, and vociferated 
in its turn, " A Berlin ! A Berlin ! " All Paris seemed to have 
gone mad, but already, in spite of what has been said to the 
contrary, remarks were heard hostile to the Emperor and to 
the government, who, it was said, had not soon enough tried 
to avenge the insult which France had received, but had done 
their best to prevent the outbreak of a war which, as some- 
one remarked in my presence that same evening, " was in- 
dispensable to the dignity and the greatness of the country." 
To attempt reasoning with such folly was out of the question. 
I stopped the cab which had brought me from the station, 
and, alighting near one of the cafes on the boulevards, sat 
down under the pretext of having something to drink, but 
in reality to observe the scenes that were taking place. All 
the windows and balconies were full of people looking down 
in the street below, and watching the movement of the crowd, 
listening to its warlike cries. And later, when the theatres 
were over, the boulevards seemed to fill even more than they 
had been before. Women appeared wearing the national 
colours, and above the noise, the shouts, the movements of 
that great agglomeration of human beings, resounded again 
one great acclamation, one immense cry : "A Berlin ! A 
Berlin ! " 

When at last I reached our Embassy, I found that con- 
sternation prevailed ; not at the war, though everybody 
agreed that anything more foolish than the circumstances 
that had led to it had never been seen, but at the weakness 
displayed by the government, which certainly ought to have 
checked that exuberance of public opinion, and prevented 

57 



France from Behind the Veil 

manifestations that at any moment might turn against itself. 
Then surprise was expressed at the disorderly attitude dis- 
played by the troops when starting for the frontier, as already 
one or two regiments had done that morning. No one ventured 
to make a prediction as to what the future was holding in 
reserve, but serious apprehensions were entertained concerning 
the ultimate fate of the Emperor and of his dynasty. 

That last feeling was very general, and I found it prevailed 
among all the foreigners then at Paris. Two or three days 
after my return to the capital, I called upon an old friend 
of mine, Madame Jules Lacroix, an extraordinary old woman, 
a Russian by birth, whose sister was the widow of the novelist 
Balzac, and who had made her home in France ever since 
her marriage with M. Lacroix, the brother of the famous 
novelist known under the pseudonym of " Bibliophile Jacob," 
Madame Lacroix presided over one of the pleasantest salons 
of the time ; within its walls one was always sure to meet 
some important and interesting persons. She had been a great 
friend of Morny, and though her family had been Legitimists — 
she used to boast of her alliances with the Bourbons through 
Queen Marie Leszczinska, her aunt many times removed — 
all her S5nnpathies were with the Napoleonic dynasty. She 
possessed a villa in St. Germain, where she used to spend her 
summers, and was there at the time the war broke out. I 
went to dine with her in the endeavour to find out something 
about the events that had brought about the present crisis. 

Madame Lacroix received me with effusion, and talked 
of little else than the war, and of the consequences it would 
have. To my great surprise, however, I did not find her by 
any means so enthusiastic as I had expected, rather she 
was subdued and anxious She related to me that her great 
friend General Castelnau, one of the aides-de-camp of the 
Emperor, who was later on to share his captivity, did not 

58 





M. M. F. SADI-CARNOT 
(President 1887-1894) 



M. J. P. P. CASIMIR PERIER 

(President 189'!-1895) 




M. F. F. FAURE 
(President 1895-1899) 




M. E. LOUBET 
(President 1899-1906) 



Ail photos. Petit, Paris. 



Before the Storm 

look at the situation with over-confident eyes, and that he 
had given her to understand that he had some apprehensions 
as to the ability of the army to come out victorious from 
the struggle it was about to enter. 

" The Emperor is more ill than one supposes," added 
Madame Lacroix, " and should his strength fail him, who 
can take his place at the head of the army ? Indeed, it would 
be far better if he did not attempt at all to lead it, because his 
presence in Paris will be more necessary than at the frontier. 
Suppose a revolution breaks out here, who is to confront it ? 
The Empress is too unpopular through her clerical leanings 
to inspire confidence in a nation that has lost every respect 
for priests and their protectors." 

Several episodes were then related concerning the dehbera- 
tions which had taken place at St. Cloud during the momentous 
days before the solemn question of war or peace had been 
decided. It seems that when the first telegrams from Berlin 
announcing the candidature of Prince Leopold of Hohen- 
zoUern for the Spanish throne had arrived in Paris, the Duke 
de Gramont had immediately sent them to the Emperor, 
though it was in the middle of the night, and that in a long 
conversation which he had subsequently held with his Sove- 
reign, he had insisted on the affront such a candidature repre- 
sented for France. Why it was an affront probably the 
Duke himself could not have properly explained. 

On the contrary, the Empress, who was afterwards to 
be represented as having done all that was in her power to 
decide Napoleon to declare war against Prussia, had been 
far from urging him to it, if we are to believe what I heard on 
that day at Madame Lacroix's. It seems that when it was 
found to be impossible to resist the public clamour for revenge 
against this insolence of Prussia, as the chauvinists, who held 
the upper hand at that moment, were pleased to call the 

59 



France from Behind the Veil 

Hohenzollern candidature, the Empress was very much upset, 
and to General Castelnau, who saw her come out from her 
room with red eyes and in great agitation, she said that she 
felt very anxious and very much afraid at the responsibility 
that was to become hers when she would be left as Regent 
alone in Paris. The General then advised her not to allow 
the Prince Imperial to accompany his father to the frontier, 
upon which she exclaimed : " Oh ! I can't keep him here, 
he will be much safer amidst the army than with me ! " 
Singular remark for a mother to make. 

Altogether it seems to me, from what I had opportunity 
to hear, that at this crisis of her life Eugenie entirely lost her 
head, and that from its very outset allowed outward circum- 
stances and impressions to obscure her clear judgment. I 
have been told that she was extremely superstitious, and 
firmly believed that what she once described in one of her 
conversations with an intimate friend as " the obstinacy " 
of the Emperor in not imposing the weight of his authority 
upon King Victor Emmanuel, to obhge him to abandon his 
secret ambitions to annex to his crown the territory of the 
Holy See, would prove fatal to him as well as to the Bona- 
parte dynasty. She was a fervent and devout Catholic 
and, in addition to her misgivings as to the future, feared the 
wrath of God. 

I was not present when the Emperor left St. Cloud and 
looked for the last time on his home of so many happy years, 
but I am told that nothing could be sadder than this departure, 
so very different from that other occasion, some ten years 
before, when, amidst the hurrahs of the Parisian population, 
he had started for the Italian frontier to take part in a struggle 
the end of which had been so glorious. And yet the present 
war was a great deal more popular than had been that of 
1859. Not only was it desired, but almost imposed on the 

60 



Before the Storm 

Sovereign, by a nation who would never have forgiven him 
had he not acceded to her wishes. And yet, when Napoleon 
took leave of his wife, his Ministers, and the members of 
his household, on that eventful 28th of July, though few 
eyes were dry in bidding him good-bye, the country over 
which he had ruled for eighteen years did not unite in wishing 
him God-speed. On the eve of the greatest catastrophe 
of modern times, an atmosphere of foreboding was already 
making itself felt in the sadness of that early departure. 

When the Sovereign had gone, a period of anxious waiting 
ensued. Paris got wilder and wilder, became more and more 
riotous. One of the Empress's familiar friends called upon 
her one day at St. Cloud, before she had left that residence 
to return to the capital, and thought it his duty to draw her 
attention to that fact, and to express to her his apprehensions 
that the excitement might have serious consequences should 
any reverse happen to the army. She replied with vivacity : 
" Oh, not only in case of reverse, also in case of victory, the 
nation only wants a pretext to get rid of us." 

These words are remarkable, and, so far as I know, no one 
had voiced such sentiments before ; they reveal on the part 
of the Regent a state of discouragement which explains, 
perhaps, her total collapse when the dreaded crisis at last 
occurred ; maybe it was this belief which led to the indiffer- 
ence with which she submitted to a destiny which she had 
accepted as foreordained, and against which she had recognised 
the utter futility of rebelling. 

She was leading a feverish existence, which left her little 
time to think over her difficult position, or to make plans 
concerning her own future. After having tried to imbibe 
the enthusiasm with which she was told the declaration of 
war against Prussia had been received in the whole of France, 
she was now realising how little grounds there had been for 

61 



France from Behind the Veil 

it. Before even the earliest news of the first disasters of 
this deplorable campaign had been brought to her, she had 
prepared herself for the worst, and believed in the worst, 
though when that worst came it was to surpass all that she 
had most dreaded or imagined. 

Before she decided to leave St. Cloud, she went for a walk 
in the park with one of her ladies in waiting. On the last 
evening she gave way to the apprehensions that were tor- 
turing her soul. The sun was setting after a glorious day, 
and the Imperial residence had never seemed so beautiful, 
nor so peaceful ; a peace in such contrast to the agitation of 
the country, that the Empress could not refrain from remarking 
upon it. Her companion tried to cheer her with words of hope 
and encouragement : " No," replied Eugenie, " I have no 
hope left, and if I could still wish for something, it would 
be to stop the course of time; to have a few more hours 
to look upon St. Cloud and its gardens ; but see," she added, 
and pointed with her hand towards the sun that was slowly 
disappearing below the horizon, " see, this is how our prosperity 
is also setting, and who knows what will happen in the night 
that is falling upon us ! " 

And covering her face with her hands, she who was still 
Empress of the French sobbed bitterly. 



62 



CHAPTER VI 

The Disaster 

When the war broke out, I had just obtained a long leave 
which I intended to spend in Russia, and immediately after 
my return to Paris began to make preparations for my depar- 
ture. The situation, however, was getting so very inter- 
esting that I kept putting off my vacation from day to 
day, especially after the first reverses had proved to every 
impartial observer that the days of the Bonaparte dynasty 
were numbered. 

No one, however, imagined that the campaign would so 
very quickly decide the momentous questions that were 
hanging in the balance. The government was doing its very 
best to prevent news from leaking out and to hide from Paris, 
as well as from the country in general, the extent of the first 
reverses that the French army had encountered. This was 
a great mistake in more senses than one, because it allowed 
the wildest rumours to get about, which would not have 
been possible had the truth been made known at once. Had 
she only shown frankness and decision, the Regent might 
still have succeeded in rall5ring around her a considerable 
proportion of the people desirous of maintaining public order. 
To secure that, her best course would have been to appeal 
pubHcly to the whole nation ; to point out that the refusal 
of the Chambers to grant the necessary military credits the 
government had asked for a year before had contributed to 
the disaster that had overtaken France ; and then to declare 

63 



France from Behind the Veil 

that she was going to do her best to negotiate an honourable 
peace. Above all things she should never have convoked 
the Chambers, the more so that constitutionally she had no 
real right to do so. The Emperor himself pointed this out later 
on, in a memorandum which he wrote for one of his great 
friends, Le Comte de la Chapelle, and he very justly remarked 
that by doing it a pretext was given for revolution to break 
out. But the impulsive Empress only thought that the 
return of Napoleon, vanquished and defeated in his capital, 
would expose him to insult, and endanger the dynasty ; 
therefore, she urged him to keep away. 

fimile Ollivier, who had judged differently, entreated her 
to insist on Napoleon's return to Paris, but Eugenie, instead 
of listening to his advice, did her best to thwart it, under 
the mistaken idea that with another Cabinet she had more 
chances to meet the difficulties of the situation. From some 
strange reasoning she interfered with MacMahon's plan to 
draw his army back towards Paris in order to defend the 
capital, and gave him peremptory command to join Marshal 
Bazaine's army. Stranger still, MacMahon, who, being re- 
sponsible for his troops, should not have allowed politics to 
interfere with his plan of campaign, acceded to her request, 
and marched to his destruction in the direction of Sedan. 

That initial mistake of the Regent was the principal cause 
of the revolution which followed upon the surrender of the 
French army to the Prussians. I do not mean to say that 
this revolution might have been averted in the long run, but 
certainly it might have been delayed, and some attempts 
might have been made to save the dynasty. Unfortunately 
the Empress thought she was acting very cleverly by seeming 
to give no thought to that dynasty, and affecting indiffer- 
ence as to its fate. She allowed the romantic side of her 
character to take the upper hand even in that supreme 

64 



The Disaster 

disaster of her life, and refused to give the necessary orders 
that might, perhaps, have averted a catastrophe not only 
where the Imperial regime was concerned, but also to 
the country. She refused to defend the Tuileries ; she 
refused to defend the cause of order which she represented ; 
she refused to defend her throne and that of her son ; she 
refused to act energetically, in order to subdue the insur- 
rection that was already making itself heard under her 
windows ; she refused to meet the mob that was invading 
the palace ; and ultimately she fled. 

It has been said that she was betrayed by those upon 
whose devotion she had the right to count. It is not to be 
contested that the conduct of General Trochu was cowardly, 
but the misfortune of Eugenie was that she had never suc- 
ceeded in inspiring any other feeling than admiration for her 
beauty. 

It is extraordinary, when one remembers all that happened 
at that time, to realise how each and all lost their heads. 
There was still a government in Paris on the 4th of September, 
there was an army, a responsible ministry that might have 
appealed to it, and yet no one seemed to have thought it 
possible to resist the demands of the mob — and such a mob, 
too. I think I may affirm that none were more surprised 
at the easy way the Empire was overturned than the members 
of the government that succeeded to the administration of 
the country. As a proof of this, I may mention a remark 
made to me many years later by Gambetta in the course of 
a conversation which we had on the subject : "I did not know 
when I left the Hotel de Ville after the proclamation of the 
new government, whether I should not find the police waiting 
to arrest me when I reached my home," was what he said. 

Had the Empress personally gone to the Corps Legislatif 
and given orders to sweep away the mob about to invade 
F 65 



France from Behind the Veil 

it, and to arrest Trochu, it is probable that the Parisians, 
cowed by her personal courage, would have acclaimed her, 
and cried out : " Vive I'lmperatrice ! " It is certain that no 
one would have harmed her, but Eugenie lost her presence 
of mind upon finding herself so utterly abandoned, and fled 
from the Tuileries, forgetting everything in the disorder 
of that moment. 

Vague news concerning the disaster of Sedan had reached 
Paris in the course of the evening of the 2nd of September, 
rumours with no official authority to explain them, but which, 
nevertheless, circulated everywhere. Later on the Empress 
was reproached for not acting at once upon them by rallying 
around her the few partisans that were still left to the Empire. 
But she was not to blame for this apparent inactivity, because 
it was only the next day that she received the telegram from 
the Emperor confirming the dreadful news. 

Among the diplomatic corps it had been known earlier, 
and commented upon as it deserved. In the late afternoon 
of the 3rd of September, I went out, and directed my steps 
towards the Tuileries. The palace seemed quite peaceful. 
The usual sentinels that were guarding it were all at their 
posts, and a crowd on the Place de la Concorde was neither 
numerous nor hostile, certainly nothing that pointed to 
insurrection. 

Among the curious people that were standing in front 
of the palace I could hear remarks and comments on the 
catastrophe of the day before, but what struck me was that 
these remarks were not hostile to the Empire ; on the contrary, 
words of regret were continually expressed, and many sym- 
pathised with the Emperor, and especially the Prince Imperial. 
After having waited for some time I turned my steps towards 
the Cercle de la Rue Royale, where, meeting some friends, 
I told them that I was surprised to find the capital so quiet, 

66 



The Disaster 

and that I thought that the Empress would be well advised 
if she took advantage of this sympathetic attitude of the 
public, to attempt to negotiate a peace. Every well-wisher 
of France felt that peace was indispensable in order to avoid 
worse calamities. I was very much surprised when a man 
whom I knew to be well informed as a rule, replied that very 
probably the next day would see a proposition promulgated 
to depose the Emperor. He added the remarkable news — 
which surely was absurd — that this would be done at the 
secret instigation of the Regent, who believed the Prince 
Imperial's only chance of ascending the throne consisted in 
the removal of his father from the political scene. 

I could not bring myself to believe such an unfair canard. 
Whatever has been said to the contrary since. Napoleon 
was always popular with a large section of people ; the 
Parisian workmen especially liked him, and felt grateful 
for the care with which he had seen to their welfare. It is 
true there were some who screamed that he was responsible 
for the military disasters which had overtaken the country, 
but these belonged to that section of unruly spirits that take 
every possible opportunity to attack every government. 
It must not be forgotten that in spite of the Lanterne and 
other revolutionary organs of the same kind, the influence 
wielded by the press had not reached the power it now possesses ; 
after eighteen years of Imperialistic rule, the country was 
disciplined and trained to obedience, and it is most probable 
that had the Emperor personally been able to make an appeal 
to it, it would have responded heartily. If the Regent could 
have obtained the liberation of her husband, and so secured 
his help to conclude peace with Prussia, such an ending to 
the campaign might have been possible at that particular 
moment — it was certainly not the time to talk of the sovereignty 
of the people and of bowing to the will of the country. 

67 



France from Behind the Veil 

The evening passed off quietly. I walked along the boule- 
vards after eleven o'clock; the night was beautiful, and the 
streets as animated as usual. I could not discern much con- 
sternation among the crowds, everyone seemed only to be 
more subdued than had been the case lately. And when I 
left my house on the morning of the 4th there were certainly 
no signs whatever of a revolution in the streets, nor any 
atmosphere of impending disaster. 

I was living in the Avenue de I'lmperatrice, now Avenue 
du Bois de Boulogne, and as I reached the Champs Elysees, 
I found that everything was as quiet as usual. The fountains 
were playing in front of the Palais de ITndustrie, children 
were romping in the walks, and there was no indication 
that anything unusual was going on. I went to breakfast 
at the Cercle, and it was only after leaving that I was 
accosted by a friend on the Place de la Concorde who told 
me that the Corps Legislatif had been invaded by the mob. 
Curious as I am by nature, I turned my steps towards the 
Palais Bourbon, and found really an enormous crowd assembled 
there ; but even then, there was nothing hostile in its attitude, 
it was rather good-humoured than anything else. Some leaders, 
however, were shouting : " La decheance ! La decheance," at 
the top of their voices. No one seemed to offer any resist- 
ance, and the attitude of the deputies, when I managed to 
enter the gallery reserved to the Corps Diplomatique in order 
to obtain a view of what was going on inside the House, 
was rather one of surprise than anything else. Amidst the 
hum of voices could be heard the deep tones of M. Jules Ferry 
urging those present to go to the Hotel de Ville and to 
proclaim the Republic, but with the exception of Jules Favre, 
and of M. de Keratry, no one seemed to share his opinion. 
I am convinced that if, at that moment, the Regent had 
occupied the Palais Bourbon with a military force, the Revolu- 

68 



The Disaster 

tion would never have succeeded, and to this day I fail to 
understand how it was that no member of the government 
had the presence of mind to take upon himself the respon- 
sibility for such a measure, which might have changed the 
whole history of France. It is quite certain that even when 
the three leaders of the Revolutionary movement started 
for the Hotel de Ville, they did not possess the sympathy 
of many of their colleagues, rather, the latter only wanted 
the support of the government then in power, to get rid of 
them. None would have objected to the arrest of these 
three men, had there been found but one person strong 
enough to put such a measure into execution. 

The fact is, the majority of the members of the Corps 
Legislatif seemed to be quite dazed by what was happening ; 
they did not at all understand what was going on. I am 
convinced that they left the hall where the sitting had taken 
place, without having realised that it was for the last time. 
As soon, however, as they had done so, the mob invaded 
the Palais ; but the scenes of disorder that are asserted to 
have followed, never took place. I remained some time un- 
observed at my post, and failed to see the excesses of which 
some speak as occurring. Of course, shouts were heard, 
a boy of about eighteen years old sat down in the Presidential 
armchair, and rang the bell with all his might, but this was 
done more in childish amusement than anything else. I 
repeat that the slightest appearance of a military force would 
have restored order at once, and this makes the subsequent 
events more unpardonable still. 

After having spent about an hour watching the scenes 
that attended the end of the Legislature which, under Napoleon 
III,, had ruled France for eighteen years, I left the Palais 
Bourbon and turned my steps towards the Tuileries. There 
the crowd was more hostile, especially the Garde Nationale. 

69 



France from Behind the Veil 

The men had turned their rifles upside down, and some of 
them were screaming aloud they would never fire against 
" la nation." Now and then a cry resounded : " La decheance ! 
La decheance," and the accents of the Marseillaise made them- 
selves heard ; but it must be remarked that no cries of " Vive 
la Republique ! " were to be noticed, at least I did not hear 
any. Another strange feature of this pacific revolution was 
that the mutineers were in small bands, which were each fol- 
lowed by a considerable crowd of onlookers, which probably 
would have dispersed at sight of the first company of soldiers. 
The police had mysteriously vanished, and the whole aspect 
of the crowd was good-natured in the extreme ; it was com- 
posed of as many women, children and dogs as of insurges, 
and seemed more on amusement bent than on anything else. 
Even when the gates of the Tuileries were at last forced, and 
the mob found itself in the big courtyard, it did not attempt 
to enter the interior of the Palace ; the people merely 
walked about the garden and the inner courtyard that led 
from the Carrousel to the private gardens. Had the Empress 
remained she would not even have noticed the invasion, 
and the best proof of what I say here lies in the fact that 
when the members of the new government arrived a few 
hours later in the Tuileries, they found everything in the 
same state as usual ; nothing had been disturbed, and even 
the papers forgotten by the Empress on her writing table 
had been left untouched, the servants were all there, but had 
only taken care to take off their liveries, with the alacrity 
which people of their class always display in turning against 
their former masters as soon as misfortune comes in any shape 
or form. 

I was one of the persons who visited the Tuileries on the 
evening of that memorable 4th of September, which saw 
the fall of Napoleon IIL's dynasty. No one knew at that 

70 



The Disaster 

moment what had happened to the Empress, nor where she 
had fled, and rumours were going about in some quarters 
that she had tried to join the Emperor, and in others that 
she had directed her steps towards Metz with the intention of 
seeking a refuge with the army of Bazaine, and estabUshing 
there the seat of government. 

When I visited the Palace I found that no one there 
believed she had gone away for ever ; indeed — and this is a 
detail that I believe has never been recorded elsewhere — I 
found one of her maids preparing her bed just as usual ! 
It was evident the flight had been a hurried one. In 
the private rooms, letters never meant to be seen by a stranger's 
eye were scattered about ; a gold locket with the portrait 
of a lovely woman, the Duchesse d'Albe ; another one with 
that of a baby in long robes, the first picture of the Prince 
Imperial ; one small golden crucifix ; a note just begun, 
and addressed no one knows now to whom, but of which 
the first words ran thus : " Dans la terrible position ou je 

me trouve, je ne " The writing stopped there ; evidently 

she who had started it had been interrupted by the bearer 
of some evil message, and there it lay forgotten, in the midst 
of the tragedy which had put an end to so many things 
and to so many hopes. 

The Revolution of the 4th of September was especially 
remarkable for the inconsiderable impression it produced 
in Paris itself. Life went on just as usual, and save for a 
few expressions of wonder, no one seemed quite to realise the 
importance of it. The capital began to prepare for the siege, 
rather with mirth than anything else. To tell the truth no 
one seemed to believe in its possibility, and I remember one 
day, when visiting a friend who was living on the QuaiMalaquais, 
she pointed to the Seine flowing softly under her windows, 
saying at the same time : " Croyez-vous que les Prussiens 

71 



France from Behind the Veil 

arriveront devant mes fenetres comme les Normands jadis sont 
entres a Paris ? " (" Do you think that the Prussians will 
arrive in front of my windows as the Normans entered 
Paris in days of yore ? ") 

I reproduce this remark just to show how very little those 
in the capital reahsed either the present or the future at this 
particular moment. 

Another thing which struck me, was that existence out 
of doors seemed to go on much as usual, in spite of the bad 
news that continued to pour in. The theatres were full, 
and people seemed to make the most of the late summer 
days that were coming to a close. There was very little ex- 
citement, and the feeling that predominated was one of 
curiosity. Some people were departing, but not in large 
numbers, and it was only towards the end of September that 
people began seriously to look at the situation. By that 
time I had already left Paris. I went on the 15th of September, 
hoping to return in January, not suspecting then that the 
war would drag on as it did, I, together with many reason- 
able people, still hoped that the new government would see 
the necessity of ending a hopeless struggle before it was too 
late. 

All my suppositions turned out to be wrong, however, 
and it was only towards the end of February that I was once 
more to find myself at my old post, by which time the un- 
fortunate Emperor, languishing in captivity, seemed to be 
forgotten, and the Republic had grown to be an established 
fact. 



72 



CHAPTER VII 

Letters from Paris during the Siege 

Paris was already invested when I succeeded in leaving it 
with the help of a diplomatic passport, and it was in Vienna 
that I read in the papers the news of the useless interview 
that took place between Prince, at that time still Count, 
Bismarck, with M. Jules Favre at Ferrieres. I never under- 
stood how the German Chancellor, who at that time had 
not the slightest intention to conclude peace, consented to 
receive the representative of a government which he had not 
acknowledged. I was told later on, that it was at the request 
of the King of Prussia he had given his assent to Favre' s 
arrival at the German headquarters. 

The results of this hopeless attempt are well known. Jules 
Favre talked as only an advocate can talk. But he pleaded 
sentimental reasons where hard facts only had to be con- 
sidered. When he returned to Paris, it was with the con- 
viction that as the government of the Defense Nationale was 
neither strong enough nor respected enough to compel the 
country to accept a shameful peace, the only thing was to 
allow matters to drift. 

A good many of my friends, and of my colleagues, had 
elected to remain in the capital, and there await the end 
of the war, and I must own that I regretted later on that I 
had not been given the same opportunity. That period 
was most interesting, and I have always felt that 
to understand the genesis of the events which happened 

73 



France from Behind the Veil 

later on, one ought to have experienced those months of 
anxiety, when the great capital was abandoned to her fate, 
with the Prussian guns levelled against her. 

I was not, however, left entirely without news, and as 
regularly as was possible received letters from besieged Paris, 
sent either by balloon or by carrier pigeons. I have 
kept them all, and from their pages now give extracts 
which will give an idea of the feelings of the Parisians during 
the trial they had to undergo. 

September 2^th, 1870. 
" My very dear Friend, — You will be wondering what 
is happening to us, and I do not want to let pass the present 
opportunity to send you some news concerning us. We are 
now quite resigned to the prospect of a siege, and the only 
question that is agitating the public mind is how long it 
will last. The most contradictory rumours are spread, and 
some of them even attribute to Jules Favre the intention 
of tr3nng to restore the Empire, after having assured himself 
that he would remain its Prime Minister. Of course this 
is nothing but humbug, and I only mention it to you to show 
you to what extent public imagination can cajole itself. What 
is not humbug, however, is the difficulty the government 
finds in attempting anything in the way of peace negotiations. 
It begins to see the great mistake which was made when a 
small minority overthrew the Empire so unexpectedly. Had 
it been left standing, all the onus of the disastrous peace, 
which, whether France likes it or not, will have to be con- 
cluded, would have fallen upon its shoulders, whilst at the 
present moment, it is the Defense Nationale^ which will bear 
the brunt of anger at the dismemberment of our France. 
This may sound the death knell of the Republic, and those 
who are at its head know it but too well. I think that the 

74 



Letters from Paris 

unlucky phrase of Jules Favre, when he said that he would 
never give up ' un pouce de notre territoire, ni une pierre 
de nos forteresses,' was more a calculated pronouncement than 
the result of an enthusiasm too strong to think of the con- 
sequences its imprudent words might have. He wanted to 
ward off the evil moment when he would be called upon to 
do that which the Empire he had helped to overthrow would 
have done had it been left in power ; and feeling this to be 
inevitable, had tried to keep the knowledge of this bitter 
fact from the public. One begins to realise the mistake one 
has made, I repeat it, but unfortunately one does not see 
what ought to be done to mend it. The public feeling in the 
city is very different from that which was prevailing on the 
4th of this month. The Parisians begin to realise the serious- 
ness of the situation, but there is no talk of a surrender, and 
the confidence that victory will return to France is very 
dominant among the lower classes, whilst it is recognised 
among the higher ones that the deal has been irrevocably 
lost, and that peace ought to be concluded, else serious dis- 
turbances may occur among the Garde Nationale and the 
numerous militia. 

" The government does nothing, and when I have said 
this, I say everything. They say that they can do nothing 
and that it is to the Tours delegation they must look for 
an attempt to stop the progress of the Prussian army. So 
long as Gambetta was here there was some activity in minis- 
terial offices ; now he has gone there is absolute stagnation. 
All these ministers, suddenly called upon to exercise functions 
for which they were totally unprepared, seem lost, and Jules 
Favre looks at the political situation with the same eye he 
would look at some big criminal or civil law case — from the 
outlook of an advocate, not from that of a statesman. They 
say he actually cried during his conversation with Bismarck. 

75 



France from Behind the Veil 

The question arises whether these tears were genuine ones of 
grief, or simply a rhetorical incident. How much more 
dignity there was in the conduct of General Wimpffen and 
his colleagues, when they discussed with the German Minister 
and the German General Staff the conditions of the capitu- 
lation of Sedan ! No one likes Jules Favre, whom even his 
partisans consider to be a demagogue of talent, but nothing 
more. And certainly France does not need demagogues at 
the present time. 

" There are comical notes in the gravity of the situation. 
People talk about never surrendering, about dying for their 
country, whilst running about buying hams and butter, 
and as many provisions as they can, in view of the siege. 
Vegetables are at a premium, meat will soon become a luxury, 
bread is already looked upon in the same light that cakes 
were formerly, and frivolous women are getting excited at 
the thought of the many privations which they expect 
they will be called upon to endure. Yet comparatively few 
people have left the capital, where, after all, perhaps, one is 
safer than in the provinces. News leaks out sometimes from 
the outside, mostly false ; for instance, it was related the other 
day, that the Prince Imperial had reached Metz, and put 
himself under the protection of Marshal Bazaine. All the 
partisans of the Empire believed it, but serious people did 
not attach any faith to this rumour. The Legitimists are 
full of hope that out of the present complications a monarchical 
restoration may ensue ; the Radicals, on their part, are sure 
that, sooner or later, the government will fall into their hands. 
The principal question that is agitating the public mind, is 
as to who would eventually have the right to conclude peace 
with Prussia. No one, to begin with the members of the present 
administration (for one can hardly call it a government), 
believes that the King of Prussia would consent to treat 

76 



Letters from Paris 

with them. Therefore the calHng together of a National 
Assembly is imperative, but would this Assembly be the 
expression of the will of the nation, when the elections would 
have to be held under the muzzles of the enemy's guns ? 
In a word, we live in a state of uncertainty such as France 
has never yet experienced, no one knows what the morrow 
holds in reserve, and though there is a government of the 
National Defence, yet there is no one to defend the country." 

I have reproduced this letter in its entirety, because it 
seems to me that it explains very well the state of opinion in 
besieged Paris. Later on, I was to receive another com- 
munication from the same correspondent, written immediately 
after the insurrection of the i8th of October. This one is 
more alarming even than the first. 

" We have had the other day," he writes on November 4th, 
" the first taste of that revolution which we shall not escape. 
It began by an echau^ouree of the National Guard, and ended 
by an invasion of the Hotel de Ville by the mob. It was 
repulsed, but for how long ? This is the question, and the 
population of the faubourgs is getting so excited that at 
the first opportunity it will most certainly again take the 
offensive, and this time with greater chances of success. 
Don't forget that, after all, we have no regular army in Paris 
worthy of that name, that arms have been distributed not 
only to the National Guard, but to a great part of the popu- 
lation ; that, consequently, it is the latter, and not the pseudo- 
government, that in reality holds the power to impose its will 
upon the capital. One talks a lot about patriotism, believe 
me there is very little of patriotism about ; all the politicians 
who have tried to persuade themselves that they have the 
qualifications of real statesmen, only think of their future, 

77 



France from Behind the Veil 

and of the possibility of their own greatness rising out of the 
ruins of their fatherland. They do nothing else but talk ; 
I wish they would work — it would be more to the point, 

" I must tell you something that will surprise you. Rumours 
have been going about that the Prussian government had 
started some negotiations with the Empress in England. She 
is still Regent in name if not in fact, and her intervention, 
especially if it was strengthened by a demonstration of the 
army of Metz in her favour, might decide the King of Prussia 
to conclude an honourable peace, or at least one which would 
be termed honourable by every reasonable person. Well, 
will you believe me that a Bonapartist, quite au courant with 
what goes on, and who knows, moreover, the character of the 
Empress, told me that in his opinion she would always hesitate 
to take measures which might afterwards be attributed to her 
as proceeding from a desire to save the dynasty ? She persists 
in that attitude which she has adopted from the outset, of 
putting France before everything, and of appearing to be 
careless of the interests of her family. She will not see that, 
at a time of such crisis, the interests of the dynasty are in- 
separable from those of the country, and that if by means of 
an intervention of the army of Metz in its favour she can 
conclude peace under more favourable conditions than those 
which Prussia would impose on a Republican government, 
it is her clear duty to do all that she can to achieve that 
result, no matter what reproaches might be hurled at her in 
the future. The Empire still has many partisans in France, 
especially among the working classes ; they would most 
certainly have rallied around the Regent if it had been 
properly explained to them that she had saved the army 
of Metz from the fate that had overtaken that of Sedan, 
and, in consideration of this service, one would have forgiven 
her many things. Of course what I am telling you here 



Letters from Paris 

reposes on hearsay, and you most probably know more about 
it than we can here, separated as we are from the outside 
world ; but I repeat it, strong rumours have been going about, 
that Eugenie has been approached by Prussia, who, it seems, 
is even more eager for peace than we are, and that it has 
been hinted to her that every facility would be granted to 
her to appeal to France, to help her out of the terrible situa- 
tion in which both find themselves at present. Among a 
certain circle strong hopes were indulged at one time that these 
rumours would turn out to be true, consequently the news 
of the capitulation of Metz, which the Prussians took good 
care should reach us, came as a thunderbolt to the Bonapartists, 
who openly declared that it had been brought about through 
the refusal of the Empress, from mistaken dynastic reasons, 
to assume the responsibility of a peace, the conditions of 
which, including, as they necessarily must have done, a 
concession of territory, would have excited indignation 
throughout France. 

" All that I am telling you is, of course, the result of my 
private observations, but these may interest you, in view 
of your Imperial sympathies. 

" And now you shall ask me what I am doing personally 
in our poor besieged Paris. Well, I happened to be near the 
Hotel de Ville on that memorable i8th of October, and I 
was much interested in the motley crowd that assembled in 
front of it. What struck me extremely was the large con- 
tingent of women, who were trying either to help or to excite 
their husbands or friends. I did not think that Parisian 
females were so revolutionary, nor that they counted in their 
midst such a number of old hags worthy to rival the witches 
of Macbeth in appearance. I am afraid that if we see a real 
revolution — ^which God forbid, though I am inclined to think 
its advent is inevitable — the women will show themselves 

79 



t'rance from Behind the Veil 

ten times more ferocious than the men, and that the days 
of the tricoteuses, who dictated to the Convention in 1793, 
are not by any means over yet. 

" The remnant of society left in the capital has bravely 
made up its mind not to eat, drink and be merry, but to go 
through all the hardships of the siege with good humour 
and resignation. People still see each other, and indeed 
social life has not changed, although the menus of the dinners 
to which one is invited are anything but luxurious. For in- 
stance, yesterday I was asked to lunch by my old friend 
Countess Stephanie Tascher de la Pagerre, together with two 
other people, and this is what we were offered : a potage 
Liebig with macaroni, roasted horseflesh, fresh beans, and 
chocolate cream without cream, but made with tinned milk. 
With the most charitable feelings in the world, it would be 
impossible to say that it was good, or that anyone liked it. 

" Clubs, too, are just as formerly, though they present 
the unusual sight of members dressed in uniform, who often 
come to lunch direct from the front, and who leave a rifle 
instead of a stick to the care of the hall porter, whilst they 
snatch a hasty and nasty meal. The theatres play just as 
usual ; an ambulance has been organised in the foyer of the 
Comedie Frangaise, and Mile. Sarah Bernhardt is just as 
bewitching under the white cap and apron of a nurse as she 
was in her most gorgeous stage dresses. In short, the 
comedie humaine has become the comedie parisienne, not- 
withstanding the tragedy of Paris and of France." 

This letter, penned by an American who had elected to 
remain in Paris during the siege, gives pretty well the idea 
of the spirit that prevailed among the Bonapartists, and the 
one which animated the grand monde, or at least those who 
had not fled abroad. To complete the picture, I must give 

80 



Letters from Paris 

another letter, one from an old lady whose name I have 
already mentioned in these pages — Madame Lacroix, who had 
returned from St. Germain after the 4th of September, and, 
notwithstanding her great age, had remained in Paris, where 
her salon was the rendezvous of her numerous friends, and 
just as animated as it had been formerly. 

" Our situation is always the same, just as lamentable 
and just as sad. Nothing seems to change around us, save 
the fact that provisions are getting scarcer and scarcer, that 
butter is not to be had for love or money, and that dogs, 
rats, and cats appear on the best tables in place of beef and 
mutton. Gas also is a thing of the past, and one has to 
exercise strict economy in oil and paraffin. I have now only 
one lamp burning in my drawing-room, which we take along 
Mdth us when we go to the dining-room. The population 
begins to get exasperated at this heavy inaction that 
weighs upon it ; the absence of all reliable news also tells on 
the hearts and minds. On the 29th of November we were 
awakened by the sound of the cannon, and one heard 
that at last the government had decided to make an effort 
to attack the enemy, in the endeavour to effect a junction 
with the army of the Loire, which, as it seems, was quite near 
to us ; at least this is what our government choose to tell us. 
Trochu has published another proclamation, addressed to 
the population, just as devoid of common sense as all his 
previous ones have been. For about three days we were 
left absolutely without news, though it was rumoured that 
the Prussians had been defeated by Ducrot, but at last it 
leaked out that the plans of Trochu had failed, and that the 
effort made by the garrison of Paris had been unsuccessful. 

" On the 5th of December we were startled by the news of 
the defeat of the army of Chanzy near Orleans, and I must 

G 81 



France from Behind the Veil 

confess to you that now the most sanguine hopes have been 
shattered, and the only feehng left is the desire to see this 
nightmare under which we are li\ing come to an end." 

This letter was written just before the end of that sad 
year 1870, which had begun so brilliantly with a reception 
at the Tuileries, now standing deserted and abandoned by 
its former masters. In the first fortnight of January a curious 
incident occurred, which, I believe, has not been widely known 
among the public, but yet, in view of the events that 
happened later on, offers a certain interest. I will relate it 
in the words of the friend who informed me of it, the American 
whose letter I have already given : 

" I am going to tell you something which will probably 
appear to you rather like a scene taken out of a comic opera, 
but which I am assured really took place the other day. A 
friend of the Orleans princes asked General Trochu to grant 
him an interview, and tried to win his support to a propo- 
sition to ask the Duke of Aumale to accept, if only for an 
intermediary period, the post of President of the National 
Defence. Trochu, after having indulged in the usual rhetoric 
of which he is so fond, at last pathetically replied that he 
had sworn fidelity to the Republic, and that as a soldier 
he could not break his oath ; to this his visitor retorted that 
probably that oath was sworn on something he respected 
more than the one he had made to the Empress Eugenie 
when he told her she could rely on his honour as a soldier, 
a Catholic, and a Breton. Trochu was silent for a few minutes, 

and then said : ' J'ai fait passer la patrie avant tout lorsque ' 

' Lorsque il s'est agi pour vous de vous mettre a la tete 
du gouvernement vous - meme ' (' I put my country first 

when ' ' When it was a question of placing yourself at 

the head of its government ') interrupted the other. 

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Letters from Paris 

" I cannot, of course, vouch for the truth of the anecdote, 
but it was told to me by a person who is generally well 
informed. But what I do know, is that very few people 
have been or are despised to the extent of General Trochu, 
for whom no one finds a good word to say, and everyone 
is hoping that his colleagues will oblige him either to sign the 
capitulation of Paris, which cannot be delayed much longer, 
especially now that the bombardment has commenced [this 
letter was written on the 25th of January], or else to resign 
his functions altogether. His dispatch of the 20th only 
confirmed the opinion one had as to his military abihty, 
and certainly nothing could be more lamentable than the sight 
of the troops returning into the town after the battles of the 
19th and 20th, weary, hungry, worn out, and exasperated 
against their leaders. That exasperation has again brought 
down from the faubourgs the agitators that have ever since 
the 4th of September kept Paris in a state of turmoil, and 
on the 22nd of January in the night they invaded the prison 
of Mazas, and delivered several pohtical men detained there, 
among others Flourens. They also made an attempt to 
occupy the mairie of the 20th arrondissement, A battle has 
taken place opposite the Hotel de Ville, and the government 
is entirely discredited ; even among the former most deter- 
mined partisans of war being continued at any price, the 
feeling prevails that peace, no matter on what conditions, 
would be better than the present state of things, which is 
only favourable to promoters of disorder, of which there are 
but too many." 

As is known, the capitulation of Paris took place on the 
28th of January, and I prepared myself at once to return. 
After a journey devoid of serious incidents, but long and 
fatiguing, I reached Versailles on the 31st of that month, 

83 



France from Behind the Veil 

having taken four days to do so. I had started from Berlin, 
where I had been waiting for the first opportunity to return 
to my post in Paris. At Versailles I found M. Thiers, who 
was already busy negotiating the conditions of a peace 
that most certainly the Empress Regent, had she only taken 
the responsibility of its conclusion, would have been able to 
sign under more favourable clauses than those to which France 
had to submit. It is possible, if not probable, that the Imperial 
eagles would not have witnessed the entry of the German 
troops into Paris, a humiliation which old King William did 
not see the necessity to spare a Repubhc for which it was 
impossible to feel the least respect. 

Before closing this chapter I must mention one letter 
among the many which reached me at Versailles during those 
days from friends who were in Paris, giving me some details 
concerning this crowning episode to the many sad and 
disgraceful ones that will make the war of 1870 for ever 
memorable. 

March /\th, 187 1. 

" We were all waiting with anxiety for that ist of March 
that was to see the German troops enter the capital. Grave 
apprehensions were entertained on the subject by many people, 
who declared that very probably the excited Parisians would 
indulge in demonstrations of hostility against the Prussians, 
which would assuredly have terrible consequences. On the 
27th of February I called at Rothschild's bank in the Rue 
Lafitte, hoping to hear some news there, where they were 
generally better informed than anywhere else. One of the 
principal employees, whom I knew well, told me with tears 
in his eyes that no efforts of Jules Favre had availed, and 
that the German army would occupy Paris on the ist, but 
that, as a last concession, that occupation would be limited 
to a certain zone, and not extend itself to the whole city. 

84 



Letters from Paris 

Great preparations had been made, and the shopkeepers in 
the streets through which the troops of the enemy were to 
pass had declared that they would close their doors and 
shutters ' pour ne pas assister a cette honte,' as one of them 
told me himself ; it was also tacitly understood that private 
houses would pull down their blinds. Curious to see how 
things would go on, and feeling convinced that, in spite of the 
apprehensions entertained in certain quarters, no disturbances 
of any kind would occur. Frenchmen being always cowed down 
whenever they see real strength before them, I was up very 
early, and, rejoicing at the splendid weather which had 
suddenly set in after very dark and gloomy days, as if to 
welcome the triumph of Prussia, I went down the Champs 
Elysees, and was present when the first German detachments 
made their appearance. The sight was imposing, and could 
only suggest many philosophical thoughts. The greatest 
discipline prevailed, and this discipline seemed to make a 
great impression on the numerous throngs that lined the streets 
to see the unusual spectacle. A few women were weeping 
with a certain affectation, but there were also some girls 
smiling and welcoming with glances full of coquetry the 
Prussian officers riding in front of their regiments. At about 
four o'clock everything was over, and the soldiers settled in 
the cantonments which had been allotted to them for the 
night. The next day the sight was stranger still. The popu- 
lation of Paris, notwithstanding what may have been told 
to you to the contrary, had fraternised with the enemy, and 
one saw the usual camelots that appear in the streets of Paris 
whenever there is something new to see, offer to the Prussian 
soldiers cigarettes, matches, and newspapers, whilst girls 
timidly extended some flowers to them — not, however, before 
looking carefully around them to see whether an37one watched 
them doing so. When, on the 3rd of March, the German 

85 



France from Behind the Veil 

troops retired, I heard that typical remark, from a woman 
who had been watching their going away with eager eyes : 
' Aprds tout, ce sont de beaux soldats que ceux-la ! ' she cried. 
" It seems that a solemn moment occurred during the 
review held by the new Emperor on the Hippodrome de 
Longchamps, before the troops started to enter Paris. I 
have been told the sight was most imposing, and must have 
roused a world of remembrances in the heart of its principal 
hero. What must have been his thoughts at a moment 
when the history, as it were, of a whole century was suddenly 
recapitulated before his eyes ? His fate had made him witness 
the present triumph, after the humiliations of Jena and that 
first occupation of the French capital by the allied troops in 
1815, when another Napoleon had seen fortune retire from 
him ! It seems that after the review was over, the Emperor 
looked wistfully for a considerable time at the long line 
of troops fihng along on their triumphal journey, and before 
dismounting from his horse he turned towards the Crown 
Prince with the simple remark, ' I hope that you, too, have 
thanked God to-day ! '" 



86 



CHAPTER VIII 

The Commune 

As already mentioned, I returned to Versailles during the 
last days of January, and, except a short visit to Paris, 
whither I went to see after my household gods which had 
been left to their fate during the siege, and to inquire after 
the friends who had remained in the capital during those 
anxious months, I stayed there until I left for Bordeaux, 
where the National Assembly met in order to ratify the con- 
ditions of the peace that was ultimately to be signed in 
Frankfurt. 

At Bordeaux, to my great surprise, I found that the sole 
topic of popular conversation was the declaration of the 
overthrow of the Bonaparte dynasty. It seemed as if that 
was the principal object of the elections that had taken place, 
and that it was far more important than the establishing of 
an understanding with Germany. The ambitions of the 
different parties which divided public opinion in France 
had been newly awakened at the unforeseen chances which 
they suddenly saw looming before them. Orleanists, Legitimists 
and Republicans were all eager to come forward with schemes 
to take the place of the regime that had so recently come to 
a tragic close. I remember that one evening after dinner 
I was sitting together with some friends in one of the most 
elegant restaurants of Bordeaux, and we listened to a dis- 
cussion that was taking place at the next table, and during 
which the chances of the different parties that the country 

87 



France from Behind the Veil 

had sent to represent it at the National Assembly were 
enumerated. What struck me in this conversation was that 
France itself was not even mentioned ; it seemed as if the 
catastrophes that had accompanied the war had swept it 
from the face of the earth, and had only left political parties 
and political convictions, the leaders of which wanted to find 
some personal advantage out of the general disasters. Another 
thing I also observed that appeared even then strange to me, 
and it seems stranger still to-day — it is that very few people 
believed the Republic would be able to maintain itself. On 
the contrary, they felt convinced that France was standing 
upon the threshold of a Monarchist restoration. The Orleans 
princes had a considerable number of adherents, and were 
made much of in certain quarters, where the courage displayed 
by the Due de Chartres and the Prince de Joinville, who had 
joined the Republican armies as volunteers, was extolled 
at every opportunity ; whilst the Legitimists kept hoping that 
the Comte de Chambord would seize the opportunity and 
rally himself to the tricolour flag, thus to clear his path to 
the throne of his ancestors. The Republicans seemed still 
surprised and dazed by the unexpected events that had 
raised them to power, and did not believe that their 
party would succeed in maintaining itself at the head of the 
country. I believe that if the Orleans princes had been 
generous enough to forgo the millions that had been confis- 
cated under Napoleon III., and which they hastened to claim 
from the State, they would have been able easily to provoke 
a manifestation in their favour that would eventually have 
led to a restoration of their dynasty. The government was 
thoroughly discredited, in spite of the great influence wielded 
by Leon Gambetta, in whom everyone saw the man of the 
future, and it was generally felt that it would not be strong 
enough to compel the country to accept the heavy peace 

88 



The Commune 

conditions which Germany was determined to enforce. Un- 
fortunately, among all the representatives of the nation who 
met at Bordeaux, there was not a man daring enough, and 
brave enough, to suggest the recall of any of the pretenders. 
On the other hand, the Bonapartes had still a considerable 
number of partisans, who did their best to paralyse every 
effort to substitute another dynasty. They hoped that, in 
spite of Sedan, France would remember the eighteen years of 
prosperity which it had just gone through, and would recall 
the child who had been so popular, under the name of " le 
petit Prince," until the catastrophe that had sent him together 
with his parents in exile on British shores. 

The only one who appreciated rightly the intricacies of the 
situation such as it presented itself, and who very cleverly played 
his cards, in such a manner that he made himself indispensable, 
was M. Thiers. He flattered everybody, promised everything 
that was required of him, gave every pledge that he was 
asked for, and finally secured his own unanimous election at 
Bordeaux, by the National Assembly, as chief of the executive 
power — one did not dare yet to use the term President of the 
French Republic. 

The new head of the government very soon made himself 
the master of the situation, and his influence became in a 
short time paramount in everything. He rapidly brought 
to a close the peace negotiations with Germany, and on 
the 26th of February its preliminaries were signed at 
Versailles. 

M, Thiers returned to Paris, determined to settle down 
to the task of mending the many sores and wounds which 
the months that had just elapsed had left behind them. 
Unhappily he found himself confronted by a situation far more 
dangerous than he had expected, owing to the want of fore- 
sight of Jules Favre, who had not had the courage to resist 

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France from Behind the Veil 

the foolish demands of the mob, and who, obe5dng the orders 
which he had received from the leaders of the extreme Radical 
party, had during the peace negotiations with Prince Bis- 
marck insisted upon the Parisian population being allowed 
to retain their rifles, and the National Guards not being 
disarmed. In a curious book called " Journal d'un Officier 
d'Ordonnance," an aide-de-camp of General Trochu, Comte 
d'Herisson, relates that Bismarck repHed to these demands 
with the prophetic words : "I am willing to accede to your 
request, but believe me you are acting stupidly." 

Stupidity or not, the National Guard was left in possession 
of its weapons, and the first thought of M. Thiers when he 
reached Paris was to take them away. But this was not so 
easy ; the National Guard was for the greater part com- 
posed of excitable men who dreamed only of the sovereignty 
of the mob. When the hour for laying down their arms 
arrived, the Guard refused to do so, and the rebellious feelings 
which had been brewing ever since the revolution of the 
4th of September broke out at last into a fury that culminated 
in the brutal assassination of two generals, Clement Thomas 
and Lecomte, who had been sent by the government to dis- 
arm the National Guard. 

Much has been written about the day which saw the 
beginning of the Commune ; I will merely add a few quite 
personal remarks, which, perhaps, will make the reader 
understand more clearly than a long narrative the state 
of mind of the Parisian population at that particular 
moment. 

The insurrection of the i8th of March had come quite 
unawares upon the authorities, who had neither foreseen 
it nor attempted to crush it, which would have been easier 
than generally believed, but unfortunately everybody seemed 
so overpowered by surprise that the simplest measures of 

90 



The Commune 

precaution were disregarded, and what was at first but a 
revolt was soon transformed into a revolution through the 
negligence of the very people who ought to have been guiltless 
of carelessness at this grave juncture. 

This is not an historical book, consequently I am not going 
to relate the details of the flight of M. Thiers to Versailles 
as soon as he heard of the revolt of Montmartre, and of the 
assassination of Clement Thomas and Lecomte, but I am 
going to speak of what I myself had occasion to observe 
on that memorable i8th of March which marked the beginning 
of the Commune. 

I had gone out of my house on the morning of that day, 
quite unconscious that anything like a revolution, or even 
a mutiny, was in the air. As chance would have it, I had 
the necessity to go to Montmartre to see an old servant who 
had been in the army and was severely wounded at that sortie 
which Ducrot had attempted just before Paris capitulated. 
The man was living not far from the Rue des Rosiers, which 
was to become so memorable. When I reached the last- 
mentioned street I found it invaded by a most threatening 
and angry crowd, which kept howling : " Vive la Commune 1 
Vive la revolution sociale ! " Reahsing that matters were 
getting dangerous, I hastily retraced my steps, and hoped 
that I should succeed in escaping the attention of the mob, 
when one of the National Guard stopped me and asked 
what I was seeking and why I had come there. He would 
not listen to my explanations, and suddenly said : " Toi 
tu me fais I'effet d'etre un Prussien, montres done tes papiers " 
("You look like a Prussian, just show me your papers"). 
When I said I had not got them about me, he took me by 
the arm and said : " Toi, mon gargon, tu iras t'expliquer au 

poste, allons, marche en avant, ou sinon " ("Now, my 

lad, you will go and explain yourself at the guardhouse, 

91 



France from Behind the Veil 

march, or else ") He showed me his rifle. Seeing that 

things were getting serious, I told my tormentor that if he 
wanted to be reassured as to my identity, he had better 
take me to the mayor of the 12th arrondissement, M. 
Clemenceau, who knew me personally and could vouch that 
I was not a Prussian spy, which he was taking me for. 
The man looked at me sharply, and then said : " Clemenceau, 
Clemenceau, mais avec celui la on ne sait jamais ce qu'il 
va faire, ce n'est pas un pur " (" Clemenceau, Clemenceau, 
one never knows what he is up to, he isn't straight"). I 
have never forgotten this remark, which perhaps explains 
better than an3rthing else the strange attitude of M. Clemenceau 
on that day, and the timidity which he displayed. He has, 
I know but too well, been bitterly accused of having witnessed, 
without trying to save them, the execution of the two un- 
fortunate generals. In justice to him, I must say, first of all, 
that he arrived upon the scene when the executions were 
already over, and secondly, that his efforts would have 
probably been quite useless, as at that time he was him- 
self held in suspicion by the leaders of the rebellious 
movement. 

I do not know how my adventure would have ended if 
by chance one of the National Guard gathered on the spot 
had not recognised me as a foreign diplomat Formerly 
he had been a butler at the Russian Embassy, and of course 
had seen me there. It is to his intervention that I owed my 
liberty, which without him would probably have been 
difficult to obtain. He fxulher gave me an escort, to whom 
he gave orders to take me safely back to my own house, 
which, however, they did not do, much to my joy ; they left 
me in the Rue Lafayette, where probably they thought it 
was not safe for them to venture, owing to their torn and 
dirty clothes and the loaded rifles which they carried. I 

92 



The Commune 

made my way on to the boulevards and met at once some friends, 
to whom I expressed my apprehensions that the revolutionary 
movement which had broken out would prove much more 
serious than those of a like nature that had taken place on 
the 31st of October and the 22nd of January preceding. We 
were still talking when we were joined by General d'Abzac, 
one of the aides-de-camp of Marshal MacMahon, of whom 
I shall have more to say by and by. He told us that M. 
Thiers had either left or was leaving for Versailles, where it 
was intended to remove the seat of government. 

No one understood why this decision had been taken, and 
especially taken with such haste. I was afterwards assured, 
by a person who was in a position to be well informed, that 
one of the reasons which had induced M. Thiers' precipitancy 
was that he believed he would with greater facility be able 
to disarm the population of Paris if he could excuse this 
measure by the dread of a revolution breaking out, if it were 
not resorted to at once. 

Nevertheless the revolution did break out, and for once 
the government found itself utterly unable to crush it. There 
was no army, and, what was worse, there were no leaders. 
The troops taken captive at Sedan and at Metz were only 
just returning, and it was to be dreaded that, very justly 
infuriated against their former generals and commanders, 
they would not feel disposed to listen to them or to follow 
them, especially if they were ordered to fight against their 
fellow men, and this, furthermore, in presence almost 
of the enemy who had not yet left Versailles or its neigh- 
bourhood. 

I left Paris at the end of March, indeed I was one of 
the last of the diplomatic corps to go away. I went to 
Versailles, as everybody else did, and happened to be present 
at the first review held by MacMahon of the troops that had 

93 



France from Behind the Veil 

just returned from their German captivity. This review had 
been rather dreaded, because it was uncertain how the soldiers 
would receive the unfortunate chief, to whose military mis- 
takes they owed their misfortunes. Nevertheless the ceremony 
went off comparatively well, though the troops preserved 
an absolute silence and did not greet their former commander 
either with enthusiasm or with disapproval. Afterwards I had 
occasion to ask an officer how it was that this review 
had taken place without the slightest manifestation of any 
kind. He replied to me that the soldiers did not want to 
give way to their feelings in presence, as it were, of the enemy, 
and that it had been very wise to hold this first meeting 
between them, and MacMahon under circumstances that ex- 
cluded the possibility of any attempt to make him aware 
of the angry feelings which were entertained in regard to 
him by the troops whom he had led to defeat and to a 
shameful surrender. 

During the two months which I spent in Versailles, until 
the end of the Commune, I found many opportunities of 
talking with leading French politicians gathered there, as 
to the future prospects of the countrv. They were unani- 
mous in maintaining that the Republic would not be able 
to hold out very long, and that a monarchical restoration 
was imminent. Some went even so far as to believe that 
the Empire still had many partisans, and that, provided 
Napoleon III. himself consented to give up his rights and 
pretensions to his son, the Bonapartes might still reascend 
the throne. They had kept their popularity among the working 
classes, who undoubtedly had reaped great advantages from 
the solicitude concerning their welfare which the Emperor 
had exercised on their behalf ever since he became the Head 
of the State. Whatever may be said now, the idea of a Republic 
becoming permanent was not then congenial to the mass of 

94 



The Commune 

the nation, who felt more in unison with a Sovereign, no 
matter who that Sovereign might be. The only one who 
saw clearly the future was M. Thiers, who, in one of his con- 
versations with an intimate friend, forgot himself so far as 
to say that " The Republic has long years of life before it 
this time." He did not add that he thought so because he 
was himself at its head. 

I do not think that any nightmare can be more awful 
than the last four days which preceded the entry of the troops 
of Versailles into Paris. I will only mention briefly the assas- 
sination of the Archbishop, Monsignor Darboy, together with 
other victims, and the desperate resistance which was offered 
on the heights of Pdre-la-Chaise to the army of M. Thiers 
by the remaining Communards, who had fled there for safety, 
the interior of Paris no longer offering asylum to them. All 
these things are matters of history, but, to the stranger who 
had seen the capital in all its glory during the last years of the 
Empire, it seemed that the effect of the cataclysm which had 
taken place would never be erased, nor the gay city ever 
recover the appearance of peace and prosperity it had enjoyed 
before the horrors of the Commune had occurred. There 
was something too sinister for words in the sight of the ruins 
which greeted the troops of Versailles when at last they 
occupied the town. The sight of the destroyed Tuileries 
and the burned streets, which testified to the horrors which 
they had witnessed, appeared as things almost too terrible 
to be true. 

But, even in those days of terror, the indifference of the 
French people to everything that did not personally concern 
them, could not fail to strike one. As soon as order was more 
or less restored, life began as usual, and the only lamentations 
which one heard were directed towards individual misfortunes 
and losses, rather than towards the misfortunes of the nation, 

95 



France from Behind the Veil 

the prestige which had been destroyed, and the hnmihations 
that had been endured. Having one day the opportunity of 
discussing with a tradesman in my neighbourhood the sad 
and terrible events which had occurred, I asked him whether 
the change of government had affected commerce and 
industry, and I was very much surprised to hear him 
reply that it had not, because the Germans had spent 
so much money that one had not been able to perceive 
any difference, \\lien I expressed my wonder that France 
had accepted their money with the satisfaction which he seemed 
to feel, he simply remarked that " Cast bien egal i qui nous 
vendous nos pommes de terre ; Timportant c'est de les vendre, 
et nous en avons vendu bien plus pendant Tannic qui vient de 
s'^couler que nous ne I'avions jamais fait auparavant " 
(" It is quite indifferent to whom we sell our potatoes ; the 
only important thing is to sell them, and we have sold ever 
so many more during the last year than we had ever done 
before "). 

In fact, satisfaction at the profits which private people 
had derived from German occupation had quite taken the 
upper hand of the sorrow the nation felt at the misfortunes 
that had fallen upon her. 

This statement of mine will probably be cjuestioned far 
and wide, but I shall always maintain it, in spite of any 
denials it may meet with. Patriotism with Frenchmen is 
mostly a question of words ; it rarely goes beyond phrases, 
full of enthusiasm but devoid of real meaning. The country 
is essentially egoistical, and it is perhaps for that very reason 
that it has not only survived its disasters, but has emerged 
from them far more prosperous, in the material sense of the 
word only, than before the Germans overran the fair land 
of France. 

One of the painful sights, in the days which followed imme- 

96 



The Commune 

diately upon the occupation of Paris by the troops of Versailles, 
was the ferocious way in which the members of the Commune 
were hunted and executed. Awful scenes, in which private 
vengeances played a part perhaps even more important than 
pubUc reasons, were enacted. The work of repression v/as a 
terrible one in the worst sense of the word, and the wanton 
cruelty which accompanied it will ever remain a dark page in 
the career of M. Thiers and of the members of his govern- 
ment. It is to be questioned whether it was indispensable, 
or even necessary, to exercise such utterly ruthless cruelty. The 
only explanation that can be given for such ferocious tyranny 
is that people in authority grew frightened and thought that, 
in order to hide their fear from the public, extreme severity 
was best, as it would at least have the advantage of instilling 
dread into the hearts of those who otherwise might have 
felt tempted to follow the example of Rossel, Raoul Rigault, 
and others. 

When all was over and order restored, M. Thiers, who was 
still residing at Versailles, came to Paris for a few hours, 
just to see for himself the damage which his house in the Rue 
St. Georges had suffered, and to pay a brief visit to the Elysee, 
which he had left with such alacrity on the i8th of March, 
as soon as he had heard of the incidents that had taken place 
at Montmartre. The reason for this hurried appearance at 
the palace was, so he said, to see whether some important papers 
he had locked up in a safe, in his study there, had not been 
seized by the members of the Commune. As luck would have 
it, no one had discovered them, and the First President of 
the Third Republic was able to regain possession of his 
property. 

A friend of his, to whom he mentioned the incident, asked 
him of what nature were those papers about which he had 
been so anxious during the whole of the two months the 
H 97 



France from Behind the Veil 

Commune had lasted. M. Thiers smiled, and repHed simply : 
" They were not of any particular importance, but that was 
just the reason why I was afraid that the Commune should 
get hold of them. I had told everybody that they were of a 
most compromising nature for some of the people actually in 
power, and for the pretenders to the crown of this country. 
Imagine how compromised / would have been had it been 
found out that they were merely tradesmen's bills 1 " 



98 



CHAPTER IX ' - 

M. Thiers 

I HAD had many opportunities of meeting M. Thiers during 
the last years of the Empire. I had known him even before 
I came to Paris in an official capacity, had often seen him 
at the houses of some mutual friends, and we came to know 
each other very well. He was one of the cleverest, nicest 
little men in the world, and even among the many interesting 
people who abounded in France at that time, he stood out 
conspicuously as one of the pleasantest. He had many 
enemies, which is not to be wondered at if one takes into 
consideration the vivacity which he always displayed in his 
likes and dislikes, and the bitterness, or rather the caustic 
tendencies, of his tongue. But friends and foes alike were 
loud in their praise of his intelligence, and especially of his 
wit. I am not talking of his moral character, which was 
discussed in many ways and which in part justified the 
attacks that were levelled against it. The Legitimists could 
not forgive him the part he had taken in the arrest of the 
Duchesse de Berry, nor the attitude of the ministry of which 
he was a member with regard to that unfortunate Princess 
whose frailties were so mercilessly displayed before the public 
before the end of her captivity in the fortress of Blaye. The 
Orleanists also did not care for him, in spite of the pledge 
which he had given to their party ; but Louis PhiHppe per- 
sonally was fond of him, perhaps because their tastes were very 
much alike, and because the sternness and austerity of Guizot, 

99 



France from Behind the ^ eil 

his great opponent, had never appealed to the heart of the 
King, who stood rather in awe of that imposing ligure in modern 
French pohtical Hfe. The bonhomie of Thiers, his easy- 
going manners, were more in accordance with the homely 
attitude which at that time distinguished the Orleans family 
circle. As Montalembert once said very wattily : " Thiers, 
c'est le ministre bourgeois d'une dynastie bourgeoise." 

And the remark contained a great deal of truth, though 
it is much to be doubted whether the brilliant Catholic 
leader appreciated at their real worth the sterling qualities 
which M. Thiers was hiding under the sometimes frivolous 
manner in which he treated serious subjects. 

As a writer he was one of the greatest of his epoch, and 
his work on the Consulate and the First Empire wall always 
rank among the classics. Few people have understood so well 
as he did the gigantic figure of the first Napoleon, and cer- 
tainly his knowledge of history, the wonderful way in ^^•hich 
he remembered its lessons, and knew how to apply them 
where it became necessar5^ constituted a unique thing even 
in France, where at that time there was a superabimdance 
of cle^■'er writers and great thinkers, of whom he was one of 
the foremost. 

Some enemies of M. Thiers assured me that he would have 
done better to confine himself to his historical studies, and 
that it was a mistake on his part to throw himself into the 
struggles of a political career. I do not share this opinion 
personally, because the ver^' nature of Thiers would have 
protested against a life spent only in thinking without the 
emulation of doing. He was essentially a great patriot, 
far greater than the general public supposed, and if he had 
f)ersonal ambitions, which cannot be denied, it must also 
be admitted that in the great moments of crisis through 
which his countr\^ passed during his lifetime, he never hesitated 

lOO 



M. Thiers 

to put all his strength, all his experience, and all his knowledge 
of public affairs, as well as his influence at home and abroad, 
at her service, sparing neither time nor trouble, nor energy, 
in his endeavours to help her. 

During the whole reign of Louis Philippe, M. Thiers was 
a conspicuous figure in Paris society, and, strange to relate, 
this petit bourgeois had succeeded in entering the most ex- 
clusive circles of the Faubourg St. Germain, and contrived 
to install himself in the favours of its leaders, masculine as 
well as feminine. He was essentially the type of a middle- 
class man, in spite of the high offices which he had held, and 
never could rid himself of the habit of tying a napkin round 
his neck at meals, when he was in his family circle, neither 
would he go out without the umbrella that remained the dis- 
tinctive sign of that epoch still known as the " epoque de 
Louis Philippe," where the bourgeoisie reigned supreme, 
and where the Sovereign tried by all means to win for himself 
the sympathies of the mob by coming down to its level. 

M. Thiers did not care for the mob. He was of an auto- 
cratic character, and of an imperious disposition, admitting 
no sovereignty apart from his own. But, nevertheless, he 
remained the child of his generation and of his class. He 
rose, but neither by adapting himself to circumstances, 
nor to the conditions of existence around him. Original 
he was in mind, in intelligence and in manners, and he did 
not change ; he always appeared to his friends as a man of 
happy disposition tempered with affability, and tinged with 
familiarity ; his distinctive characteristic from the very first 
days he entered public life. 

Thiers was essentially " un homme d' opposition," as 
one of his enemies once remarked, but he was a statesman 
of a type such as is no longer found nowadays ; an active, 
busy, little individual, always on the look out for his adver- 



France from Behind the Veil 

saries' mistakes, and terrible in the merciless way in which 
he noticed them — and, what is worse, made others notice them. 
He had but little pity in his heart for the errors of mankind, 
but was wise enough not to show the disdain in which he 
held it. He had been at a good school, had frequented the 
salon of Talleyrand, and studied politics by contact with the 
politicians who had ranked among the foremost in Europe. 
He used to relate a funny little anecdote from his early days, 
when he had been introduced to Prince Metternich, during 
one of his journeys to Vienna, whither he had repaired to 
study certain episodes of the history of Napoleon, and examine 
certain documents deposited in the Imperial Archives of the 
Burg. The statesman to whose intrigues the great Emperor 
had in part been indebted for his fall received Thiers in his 
study, and it seems received him very badly. But the little 
Frenchman, far from appearing to notice it, began at once 
to talk with the Austrian Chancellor as if he had known him 
for years, and did not scruple to question him on the subjects 
about which he desired to learn, a thing which Metternich, 
who liked above all things to hear himself speak, particularly 
disliked. Surprised at first, then slightly bored, the Prince 
told Thiers that he had better question the Director of the 
Archives about the various points he desired to clear up, to 
which the historian of the Consulate and the Empire replied 
quite brusquely that this personage could not tell him anything 
worth listening to, and that he never took lessons in history 
from those who had only read it. Metternich, more and more 
astonished, asked him what he meant. " Oh, nothing very 
important," was the answer ; " seulement je crois que personne 
ne pourrait mieux me renseigner sur Napoleon que vous qui 
etes parvenu a le tromper si completement et si sou vent " 
(" I merely think no one should be better able to give me 
information about Napoleon than yourself, who succeeded in 

I02 



M. Thiers 

deceiving him so completely and so frequently"). When 
Thiers told this anecdote he never failed to add that 
" Metternich ne trouva rien d'autre a me repondre que de 
sourire avec la remarque : ' Vous connaissez bien votre histoire, 
jeune homme ' " (" Metternich in reply could do nothing but 
smile, accompanjdng it with the remark : ' You are well up 
in your history, young man'"). 

Impudence, as one can see from the above, was not 
wanting in the character of the future President of the French 
Republic, and this impudence never deserted him in later 
years. It has been said that his vanity was intense, and 
that there was some truth in this accusation cannot be denied ; 
but beneath this vanity there lay the latent consciousness the 
man had of his own moral and intellectual worth, and of the 
immense distance that existed between him and the other 
men of his generation. He tried to impose his ideas on others ; 
he was despotic in his decisions, his judgments and his opinions, 
but he was not devoid of impartiality, and he was very well 
aware of his own faults. He loved France with a sincere 
affection, which saw through her faults, and there was no 
chauvinism in his feelings. He would have liked to see his 
fatherland prosperous and powerful, but he never rushed into 
extremes as Frenchmen are so often inclined. Whilst he was 
the responsible minister of the dynasty of July, he served 
it faithfully and to the best of his ability, and though he has 
been often accused of opportunism, yet he never would accept 
office under the Bonapartes, though, and this is rather curious, 
he always was of opinion that their dynasty was the most 
popular one among all those that aspired to the government 
of France. 

When, together with the other members of the Legislative 
Chamber, he was imprisoned by the President on the day 
of the coup d'etat of the 2nd of December, he is said to have 

103 



France from Behind the Veil 

made the following typical remark : " Le President nous 
fait enfermer, c'est son droit ; esperons pour lui, qu'il saura 
en proliter, et ne donnera pas dans le travers de vouloir 
gouverner constitutionnellement, II ne peut pas avoir de 
Constitution pour les Bonaparte, tout an plus peuvent ils 
pretendre a ce que leur regne soit celui ou on parle de Con- 
stitution comma les malades parlent des mets que leurs 
medecins leur interdisent de manger" ("The President is 
having us shut up, it is his right; let us hope for his own 
sake that he will know how to profit by it, and will not make 
the mistake of wanting to govern constitutionally. There can 
be no constitutional government for the Bonapartes. The 
utmost they can lay claim to is that during their reign the 
Constitution should be spoken of in the tone in which invalids 
speak of dishes that their doctors forbid them to eat/'). 

During the eighteen years that the Empire lasted, Thiers 
always refused to take office, though he owned later on that 
he felt once or twice sorely tempted to do so. But he realised 
that the regime could not last, and reserved himself for the 
moment when it would be overturned, feeling convinced 
in his mind that that day would be also that of his own personal 
triumph, and that whether the country liked it or not it 
would be compelled to turn to him for advice and for help. 

When after the first defeats which characterised the war 
of 1870, the Empress Eugenie felt inclined to appeal to him 
to help her, and had him sounded by one of her friends 
who was on terms of close intimacy with him, M. Thiers 
replied that it was either too late or too early for him to do 
anything, and that as matters stood, the best thing to do 
was to allow events to take their course. " But the dynasty," 
said his visitor; " are you going to allow the dynasty to fall 
like that ? " 

" If the dynasty were wise, I certainly would do my best 

104 



M. Thiers 

to support it," was the unexpected reply ; " but the dynasty 
will not be wise ; it will never have the common sense to 
bring itself to conclude peace just now, and to enforce the 
conditions of that peace, even by measures of violence against 
those who would undoubtedly oppose it. If I thought the 
Regent was strong enough and firm enough to arrest half 
the members of the Corps Legislatif, and to send the other 
half back to their own firesides to meditate on the wisdom of 
a useless opposition, if she would make up her mind to govern 
for a time without the Chambers, then I would at once accept 
office ; but she will never have the courage to take such a 
responsibility before the country, and therefore I cannot do 
anything for her. There are moments in the life of nations 
when it is indispensable for their welfare that those who 
govern them should feel no hesitation in resorting to violence, 
and France just now has reached such a moment. It is a 
thousand pities that the Regent or the Emperor fails to see 
it is the case. Under such circumstances my help would 
be useless to them, and it might compromise my own future 
prospects." 

This conversation gives a very good insight into the character 
of M. Thiers. It also accounts in part for the ruthlessness 
which he displayed in the crushing of the Commune a few 
months later. 

Apropos of this, a few weeks before his death, I had the 
opportunity of talking to him about it at St. Germain, whither 
he had repaired to spend the summer, and where he was 
preparing himself for the struggle of the coming elections, 
which he fondly hoped would prove fatal to the government 
of Marshal MacMahon, whom he still expected to replace 
as head of the State. Thiers was in a communicative mood 
that afternoon, and he spoke with great vivacity of that 
time when he had displayed such energy, as his friends said 

105 



France from Behind the Veil 

—such brutality, as his foes maintained — in fighting the 
unruly and disorderly elements that had so very nearly 
destroyed France. On that occasion he used these memor- 
able words : "I know that I have been severely blamed 
for the orders which I had given to Galiffet, to show no mercy 
to the insurgents, but, frankly, what else could I do ? We 
had just gone through an unfortunate war ; the enemy was 
at our gates, we had to execute a most onerous treaty, and 
above all to clear our territory from the invader, who certainly 
would never have left it, had he thought that this rebellion 
was going to take the upper hand. We had the whole country 
to reorganise, and this under the most deplorable conditions 
that have ever existed in the life of a nation. We were 
without an army, without any regular government, and had 
to fight the many ambitions of those who thought to seek 
their own advantage out of the general ruin. The first thing 
to do was to strike fear into the hearts of those who already 
thought that they could bring their own party to the head 
of affairs and thus add something to the general confusion. 
Don't forget that in order to oblige the Prussians to recognise 
that we were strong enough to rule France, and to rule it well, 
we had not only to assert ourselves, but also to drive out of 
the minds of all our opponents, and of these there were legions, 
the idea that we had not got power enough on our side. 

" You tell me that the Commune might easily have 
been subdued on that eventful and fatal i8th of March. 
This perhaps is true, because it did not even exist at that 
time, and we were face to face with a simple insurrection, not 
with a revolution. But would it have been wise ? I don't 
think so. Had we not acted as if we were in presence of a 
real and earnest danger, had I not retired to Versailles in a 
hurry as I did, the mutiny of the i8th of March would have 
repeated itself a few months later, and this sort of thing 

1 06 



M. Thiers 

would have gone on continually. The government would 
have been weakened quite uselessly, and the prestige of 
France fallen a little lower than was the case already. A 
revolution is an incident, perhaps sad and bloody, but an 
incident all the same ; whereas continual rebellions mean 
the demoralisation of a nation. 

" I knew that France was demoralised in the sense I 
mean, but why need the world come to the same conclu- 
sion ? Surely, none at all. Therefore we had to show the 
world that we were a strong government, that, what is 
even more important, we were a government, a fact which 
many people doubted still ; and that as such we were deter- 
mined to enforce order, to enforce it in the most determined 
manner possible, even at the risk of spilling more blood than 
we would have cared to do at other times. Of course I could 
not foresee the excesses to which the Commune would resort, 
nor the murder of the hostages, or the destroying of half 
Paris by fire, but I will be frank with you, I much preferred 
this to the consequences which would have ensued for the 
future of France, in an unsettled state of things such as would 
have resulted had the government of which I was the head 
not had occasion to show its energy and its decision to make 
itself respected. Of course, when Bismarck saw that we could 
cope with the situation, that we did not require his, or anyone 
else's help, he gave up all idea of making difficulties in the 
execution of the different clauses of the treaty of peace. The 
army also, having just returned from its captivity in Germany, 
required something to divert it from the many anxious and 
rebellious thoughts it had had time to indulge in, during the 
long months of its imprisonment in German fortresses. The 
Commune came opportunely to allow it to let its thoughts 
drift into another channel. 

" To resume the main point, I do not think that 

107 



France from Behind the Veil 

more indulgence towards the rebels would have helped us 
to regain the position to which even as a defeated nation 
we were entitled. For these reasons I do not regret that I 
enjoined severity to the troops that entered Paris. This 
severity had the result that out of the moral ruins left by the 
Empire, and those material ruins which resulted from the fleet- 
ing victory of the Commune, rose a government which won 
for itself the respect of Europe, and the esteem of Germany, 
who, seeing what it was capable of, gave up every thought of 
putting difficulties in its way. No, when I remember all that 
happened at that time, I cannot say I am sorry for anything 
I did, or which was done under my responsibility. I may de- 
plore it, but I cannot regret it. One cannot be sentimental 
in politics." 

I wrote down this conversation in my diary when I got 
home, and every time I have the occasion to read it over 
again, I remember the vivacity with which Thiers developed 
to me his ideas on this important subject, ideas which I believe 
have never before been made known to the public. 

It is strange how, with all his penetration, and his wonderful 
insight into politics, Thiers did not foresee the circumstances 
that brought about his own downfall. There were lacunes 
in that remarkable mind, lacunes which proceeded from his 
inordinate vanity. For instance, when he had started on 
that journey across Europe, in order to implore her help 
during the Franco-German war, he never for one moment 
imagined that he would be unsuccessful, or that his entreaties 
would be repulsed. The indifference with which the fate of 
his country was viewed bej^ond its frontiers proved a terrible 
blow to the old man, who sadly said, or, rather, repeated, the 
famous words : "II n'y a plus d'Europe," when his last hope, 
his trust in Alexander II. of Russia, also proved elusive. But 
with his usual ability he managed to mask his defeat under 

io8 



M. Thiers 

the pretext that neither Italy, Austria, nor Russia would 
have anything to do with the Imperial regime, and that as 
they hadn't been sure it was definitely to be classed among 
the past things of history, they had thought it best and wisest 
to remain neutral, and not to interfere with the course of 
events. Out of that circumstance Thiers made enough 
capital to ensure his own election as head of the government, 
and once established at Versailles in that capacity he felt 
sure that he would remain at his post until his death. 

He had no real adversaries worthy of that name. With 
consummate skill he had succeeded in entirely discrediting the 
Orleans princes by the willingness with which he had helped 
them to get back their confiscated millions, and he knew 
that henceforward they had made themselves impossible. 
There was still the Comte de Chambord, but in his case 
Thiers had at his disposal sources of information that left 
him no doubt as to the attitude that the latter would eventually 
take, if offered the crown of his ancestors. The only adver- 
saries he dreaded were, therefore, the Bonapartes ; and this 
danger seemed, for the present, to have drifted away by the 
death of Napoleon III. and the extreme youth of his son. 

Whether it was this last circumstance, or simply that 
his watchfulness had relaxed, the fact remains that Thiers 
never noticed the storm that was looming in the distance, 
and threatening him. And when an accidental circumstance 
brought about his fall, in quite an unexpected manner, he 
was more astonished than anyone else at the event. 

Nevertheless, he took it quite good humouredly, and with 
far more philosophy than could have been expected from 
him. I saw him a few days after it had occurred and was 
struck with his indifference. I think that upon the whole 
he was glad that his fall had taken place for a neutral cause, 
and that it had been his person that had been objected to 

109 



France from Behind the Veil 

rather than his manner of conducting the government. He 
hoped that the future would avenge him, and though such 
an old man, yet he was making plans for the day when France 
would call him back to the head of affairs. He knew that 
no matter what his enemies might say, he had deserved and 
had earned the gratitude of his country, and won for himself 
a glorious page in its annals. And if the truth be told, he was 
rather glad to be once more in the ranks of the opposition, 
and thus able to live over again the past days, when a word 
of his could overturn a government. He devoted all his 
energies to the struggle which he fully intended to initiate 
against President MacMahon, whom he had never liked, 
even when he had employed him. and whom he never forgave 
for having taken his place. Thiers had always been of opinion 
that the Marshal's intellectual capacities were of the smallest 
kind, and that except honesty of purpose, he possessed none 
of the qualifications that are required of the Head of a 
State. It was gall and womiwood to him, to find his place 
had been taken by a man who would destroy some of his work, 
and a great deal of his plans. So he devoted all his energies 
to prepare the defeat of the Marshal after the latter's coup d'etat 
of the i6th of May. 

Fate, however, interfered and carried off M. Thiers after 
an ilhiess of a few hours at St. Germain, where, as I have 
already related, he spent the last summer of his life. In 
spite of his advanced age, he died in full possession of his 
faculties, and with his intelligence as bright and clear as it 
had ever been. The emotion provoked by his death was con- 
siderable. The old man was, after all, more popular than 
one had thought, and the nation was very well aware that in 
burying him, she was also burying a great patriot, who had 
been true to her in the hour of her greatest adversity'. I 
followed in his fmieral procession, and as we were marching 



M. Thiers 

towards distant P6re la Chaise, I heard the following remark 
which left a deep impression on my mind : the more so 
that it was uttered by a common workman whom certainly 
I wouldn't have believed to be capable of it : " II avait 
des d^fauts, le petit homme, mais apres tout c'est grace 
a lui que Belfort est reste fran9ais ! " (" He had his faults, 
the little man; but, after all, it is thanks to him that 
Belfort remained French"). 

I think that Thiers would have thought, had he listened 
to these words, that they constituted the best recognition 
that had ever been uttered of his long life of service to the 
nation. 



1 (X 



CHAPTER X 

The Comte de Chambord and his Party 

I had had the honour to be introduced to the Comte de 
Chambord in Vienna, long before the fall of the Empire had 
once more put him forward as a Pretender to the throne 
of France ; I had even once or twice been invited to Frohs- 
dorf. These visits always left me a sadder if not a wiser 
man. They were more like a pilgrimage to an historical 
monument, than a visit to a living man. Everything seemed 
dead in that small, unpretentious house, for it could hardly 
be called a castle, in which the last direct descendant of 
Louis XIV. was ending his uneventful existence. The walls 
themselves told you of something that was past and gone, 
and the inhabitants of this living grave flitted like ghosts 
of the great traditions that were embodied in them. Every- 
thing was dignified, solemn, and hushed. The rooms were 
small, but full of great things and mementoes, from the large 
equestrian portrait of Henri IV., to the stately picture of 
Louis XVI., and the smiling one of unfortunate Marie An- 
toinette. Lackeys in the blue livery of the House of France, 
met you at the door, and ushered you into an unpretentious 
study, where, sitting at a table littered with books and papers, 
the Comte de Chambord was awaiting his visitors. 

He was a most charming man, with grand manners, 
and much stateliness, but one on whom the many decep- 
tions of his life had left their impress, and aged before his 
time. He always questioned all those whom he was about 

112 



The Gomte de Ghambord 

France, Paris, and everything that was going on there, taking 
the liveUest interest in his country, but not understanding 
it at all, and not realising that the France of after the Revo- 
lution was no longer the France which the old Bourbon 
monarch had ruled. He had strong principles, earnest con- 
victions, was in the full sense of the term a " chevalier sans 
peur et sans reproche," but he harboured no illusions as 
to his possibilities of playing any part in the political life 
of his country. Had he had any children it is probable that 
he would have tried to reconcile the traditions of his family 
with the requirements of modern France, but in presence 
of the fact that with him the elder branch of the House of 
Bourbon was coming to an end, he must have had the feeling, 
though he never owned to it in public, that there was no 
necessity for him to abdicate any part of the inheritance of 
his ancestors, in order to benefit the Orleans dynasty who had 
sent his great-uncle to the scaffold, and had tried to dishonour 
his own mother. He was too much of a gentleman not to 
have received with politeness the overtures of his cousins 
when they made up their minds to come and pay their respects 
to him at Frohsdorf ; but he could not, and would not, affect 
in regard to them a cordiality which he did not really feel. 
The Comte de Chambord was essentially un homme 
d'' autrefois ; he never shirked what he considered to be his 
duty, but who would never give himself the appearance of 
liking what he did not, or of respecting what did not deserve 
respect. He had grand manners that savoured of hauteur, 
and left one in no doubt as to what he thought or believed. 
Life had been one long disappointment to him, which he 
had accepted with a true Christian spirit, devoid of the 
slightest shade of rebellion, and he had picked up his 
burden, and carried it nobly to the end. He died wrapped 
in the folds of the old flag which he had refused to re- 
I 113 



France from Behind the Veil 

nounce, even when a crown would have rewarded him for 
its abandonment. 

At Frohsdorf he led the existence of a country gentle- 
man ; there was no semblance of a Pretender about him. 
As he once said to a visitor who very tactlessly had remarked 
upon it : " I am not a Pretender, and do not need give myself 
the appearance of one. I am a principal for those who see in 
me their King." 

And yet there was much that was kingly in that quiet 
Austrian domain, to which the Duchesse d'Angouleme had 
retired towards the end of her earthly career, and which she 
had bequeathed to her nephew. The big drawing-room where 
one assembled in the evenings after dinner had a vague appear- 
ance of a palace, though the master of it did his best to put his 
visitors at their ease ; but the Comtesse de Chambord sitting 
in her big arm-chair by a round table, upon which her needle- 
work was laid, or bending over the stitches of her tapestry, 
looked every inch a sovereign, in spite of the knitted scarf 
which she often tied round her head, or the extreme simplicity 
of her black silk dress, made quite high to the throat and 
finished by a plain white linen collar. The atmosphere of the 
room, too, was laden with a hush and solemnity that 
at once made one feel and understand that one was not in 
the dwelling of a common mortal. These evenings were any- 
thing but amusing, though the Comte did his best to keep the 
ball of conversation rolling; but somehow it was impossible 
to give it a frivolous turn, or to drive away an impression 
that everyone in the room was waiting for something, What, 
of course, was not known ; but one was waiting, waiting like 
the son of the murdered Due de Berry had been waiting 
ever since his birth, for the call of his coimtry, which never 
came, or at least not in the way in which he would have 
cared ^to respond to it. 

"4 



The Gomte de Chambord 

A great deal has been said concerning the attempt at a 
monarchical restoration that had taken place during the presi- 
dency of Marshal MacMahon, and the circumstances which had 
accompanied it have not been commented upon in a manner 
favourable to the Comte de Chambord. I was in Versailles 
at the time it occurred, and from what came to my knowledge 
I do not think that the real reasons which influenced Henri V., 
as his adherents called him, have ever been known in their 
entirety. One has spoken of the flag and of the reluctance 
of the Pretender to accept the tricolour, but what has never 
been revealed to this day is that a compromise had been 
suggested by a clever French politician who had been consulted. 
Gifted with a singular gift of observation, this politician was 
very well au courant of the feelings of the different parties 
which were represented in the National Assembly, and con- 
sequently he was in a position to give sound advice to those 
who had recourse to his experience. 

His compromise was that the national flag should remain 
the tricolour, whilst the King would keep for his own personal 
emblem the white cravat of his ancestors, that alone would 
be borne before him on all State ceremonies which were not 
purely military ones. Strange to say, the Comte de Cham- 
bord had at first appeared willing to consent, understanding 
well, in spite of the prejudices of his earlier education, that 
he would be obliged to make some concessions to the times 
before he could hope to be accepted by France as its 
legitimate King. But, before giving his final adherence to 
this compromise, he wished to know the opinion of his cousin, 
the Comte de Paris, and to learn from him whether or not 
he would, when in due course he succeeded him, ratify this 
arrangement, and maintain its clauses. The Comte de Paris 
refused to assume the responsibility of saying yes, and replied 
evasively that his uncle the Due d'Aumale ought to be con- 

115 



France from Behind the Veil 

suited. The latter, however, declared that he could not 
advise his nephew, but that it would be difficult in his opinion 
for an Orleans prince to forget that the fate of his dynasty 
was bound up with that of the tricolour banner, and that to 
renounce it even in part, was to renounce the glorious principles 
of the Monarchy of July. This answer, when it became known 
to the Comte de Chambord, did away with his last hesitation. 
Urged by the strong dynastic feelings that swayed him, he 
might have made up his mind to sacrifice some part of his 
principles to the welfare of his race ; but only if this sacrifice 
would have been of some use to it. Seeing that it would only 
be interpreted as a desire on his part to put on his head a 
crown he did not care for, and which in his inmost heart 
he did not think he had either the strength or the ability 
to carry or to defend, he gave up every idea of winning it by 
means of a compromise where, in the best of cases, some 
of his own personal dignity would have foundered ; and 
after a short stay in France, he returned to his beloved Frohs- 
dorf, to die there a few years later, the last of the Burgraves 
of his generation. 

I had occasion to see him during the short stay which 
he made at Versailles under an incognito which was only dis- 
covered by a very few. We took a walk together in the park, 
and along the alleys of that garden of Trianon, where the 
young and frivolous Queen, so brutally murdered by the bloody 
Revolution which she had neither foreseen nor understood, 
had walked together with the lovely Lamballe and her train of 
gay courtiers. Everything looked sad, and deserted, and 
abandoned ; it all spoke of a dead past, and of a departed glory. 
Suddenly the Comte de Chambord stopped in his walk, and 
turning to me said those memorable words which I have 
never forgotten : " Wliat a pity that this place was not 
entirely destroyed in 1793 ! " 

116 



The Gomte de Ghambord 

I looked at him with surprise. 

" You are astonished to hear me say such a thing," he 
continued, " but let me explain to you my thoughts, and 
you will understand me better. Royalty, like so many other 
things, is a prejudice, at least for the masses who have neither 
traditions nor principles. It represents, or at least ought to 
represent to them, something that is strong, powerful, entirely 
above them, beyond them ; something sacred, that no power 
save that of God may touch or may destroy. Once 
this feeling concerning it is gone, half its prestige is gone too. 
The mob only respects what it can neither harm nor kill. 
If it once sees that royalty, like everything else, can be touched 
with a sacrilegious hand, that it is at the mercy of the first 
boy or man in the street, then the mob not only loses every 
fear, but also its veneration. It rejoices to see that it has got 
over the feeling of awe which formerly inspired it with regard 
to that superior thing which ruled it; it delights in pulling 
it down, and in treasuring the remembrance of the day on 
which it smashed it to the ground. Now nothing reminds 
one more of deeds done, whether good or bad, than the spots 
where such deeds were committed. 

"The French people, when looking at Versailles, and 
walking freely through the rooms where Kings formerly 
reigned, can always think, speak and remember, with some- 
thing of that low pride which a boxer feels when he has knocked 
his adversary to the ground, of the time when they destroyed 
the power which had ruled them, and feasted in the halls of 
their former masters. That remembrance is most unwhole- 
some, and can only foster rebellious feelings in the breasts 
of those who treasure it. Had Versailles been destroyed 
the Revolution of course would not have been forgotten, but 
the nation would not always have had before its eyes the 
sight of the monument of the fallen grandeur of its Kings, 

117 



/ 



France irom Behind the Veil 

Facts are forgotten or lose their importance far quicker than 
one thinks ; but places, and spots, keep their eloquence, 
and unfortunately keep it for ever." 

He stopped, and looked back towards the walls of the 
massive old pile, whose many windows were blazing in the 
setting sun. And once more he sighed : " Yes, I do regret 
that this place has not been burned down and destroyed ; 
it would not have witnessed then the triumph of the victorious 
Prussian eagle, and after that, what real French King would 
care to live in it, even if a King ever reigns again in France ! '* 

He sighed yet again, and we slowly retraced our steps 
towards the town. As we passed the Castle gates, he stopped 
again : " Sic transit gloria mundi," he quoted ; " my glory, 
like that of my ancestors, has passed away ; perhaps it is for 
the best after all, since I was not destined to see my 
face continue ! " 

Much has been related concerning the interview which the 
Comte de Chambord had with Marshal MacMahon, when he 
asked him whether or not he would feel inclined to favour 
a monarchical restoration. It has been said that the old 
soldier, who without scruple had accepted the succession of 
Napoleon IH., to whom he owed his title and his dignity, 
found that his conscience would not allow him to " betray," 
as he expressed himself, the Republican government, at the 
head of which he had been called by a parliamentary majority 
who had done so only in the hope that he would help it to 
reinstate its former Kings. 

There is some truth in this reproach, because certainly Mac- 
Mahon had not shown himself before, and did not show him- 
self in the future, so very chary of offending public opinion 
as represented by the Legislative Assembly which was supposed 
to be the voice of the country. But in the non possumus 
which he opposed to the restoration of the Comte de Chambord, 

ii8 





Photo : Ficrrc Petit, Pans. 

ADOLPHE THIERS 



Photo : l-Vateiy, Paris. 
MARSHAL MACMAHON 





Photo : Pit-ne Petit, Pai-is. 

COMTE DE CHAMBORD 



Photo : Cai-jat, Paris. 
LEON GAMBETTA 



The Comte de Ghambord 

there was something else than the desire to remain himself 
at the head of the State. There was a tacit pledge which 
he had given to the Orleans dynasty to support its pretensions, 
and also the feeling that he did not enjoy sufficient popularity 
among the army to enforce a change of government, and 
to bring back a dynasty which had been driven out of the 
country by its own faults. MacMahon was not clever, not 
far-seeing, but he knew very well what the troops thought of 
him, and also that at that moment the disaster of Sedan 
was not sufficiently forgotten for him to risk being punished 
for it under another pretext, which his lending his hand to 
an attempt at a monarchical restoration would have 
furnished. 

The Comte de Chambord returned to Frohsdorf a sadder 
though not a wiser man. He was not fortunate in his advisers ; 
the leaders of the Legitimist party did not understand either 
the feelings of France nor the strength which they undoubtedly 
wielded at that particular moment. Instead of doing their 
best to effect a reconciliation between the different opinions 
that divided the country, they tried, on the contrary, to ex- 
asperate them, and prevented their own triumph by the in- 
solence with which they proclaimed everywhere that its hour 
had struck. France, at that time, was like a man recovering 
from a severe illness, whose whole body is sore, and who wants 
to be handled with the greatest gentleness. The Legitimists 
ignored this condition, and loudly boasted that the time had 
come when all past grievances would be avenged, and when 
they should be allowed to rule according to their own pre- 
judices, bringing back to power with them all the old traditions 
against which the saner elements in the land had risen in 
revolt eighty-five years before. They wanted to make a 
clean slate, and wash out the remembrance of everything 
that had taken place since Louis XVL had been murdered 

119 



France from Behind the Veil 

on the scaffold. The feeling might have been a natural one ; 
the utterance of it was stupid in the extreme. 

Many have wondered at the want of initiative shown by 
Henri V., as he was called by his partisans. I, who have 
known him well, saw nothing extraordinary in this. As I 
have already hinted, he was quite willing to be carried to the 
throne, but he had no desire to occupy it, and still less to 
step upon it bound by promises and pledges, which would 
have interfered with his liberty of action, a thing of which 
he had always been extremely jealous. He had in him all 
the authority of the Kings his forefathers, and would no more 
have submitted to the advice of his courtiers than he would 
have sacrificed his principles to win back his lost inheritance. 
He wanted, above all things, to keep his libre arUtre, and this 
explains the apparent apathy with which he witnessed the 
overthrow of what had been the hopes of his followers rather 
than his own. 

Two years later I called upon the Comte de Chambord 
at Frohsdorf, during an absence of the Comtesse, in whose 
presence it was always more or less difficult to discuss political 
questions, and we talked over those days. Every hope of a 
monarchical restoration had faded then, and the Republic 
was more or less an accomplished fact. He seemed to take 
it as a natural consequence of all the mistakes committed by 
the different governments that had ruled in France, and if 
the truth be told, I think he preferred its having overcome 
all opposition, to the possibility of its being superseded either 
by the Bonaparte, or the Orleans dynasty, which he recog- 
nised, but could not accept as the successor of his own rights. 
The grand seigneur that he was could not adjust himself to 
this hankering after a " popularite de bas aloi," as he described 
it, which had ever distinguished the younger branch of the 
house of Bourbon since the days of Philippe Egalite. He 

I2Q 



The Comte de Ghambord 

refused to profess the theory that it did not matter with 
whom one shook hands, provided one washed one's own after- 
wards. On the contrary, he was of opinion that certain con- 
tacts can never be got rid of, no matter how much soap and 
water one uses to efface them. It was partly on account of that 
feehng that he did not regret circumstances had interfered 
with the monarchical restoration, for which so many people 
had hoped, and he made me understand what he thought of 
it by saying, among other things, that : " A royalty that has 
once come down into the street is no longer royalty such as 
it was understood in the days of old, when the principle of 
the * droit Divin ' was the foremost among those one had 
been taught to respect and to worship. We Bourbons of the 
old stock cannot bow before the popularity of the mob, and 
try to make it accept our own. We can work for the people, 
act in unison with the nation in all grave questions where 
its welfare is in question; we cannot accept its sovereign 
right to dictate to us its laws. I know that my ideas are 
out of fashion, ' que je suis demode,' but whom do I hurt by 
clinging to my old traditions, to the ancient glories of my 
house, which have also been those of France, it must not be 
forgotten ? If I had had children, I might have acted differ- 
ently ; I might, or I might not ; and perhaps God has done 
well in refusing them to me, as they would have been the source 
of much conflict in my mind. As it is I shall die solitary and 
alone, and with me shall die the Bourbons of Louis XIV., 
those who have learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing, as 
our enemies aver." 

He said the last words smilingly and jestingly, and I 
could not help smiling, too, though I well knew the latent 
sadness that was hiding under his apparent mirth. He was 
still a handsome man at that time, though far too stout, and 
his lameness, although not interfering with the dignity of his 

121 



France from Behind the Veil 

manners, still took away from what otherwise would have 
been an imposing figure. But the eyes had a wonderfully 
kind expression, the noble, intelligent forehead revealed 
a grand nature and a beautiful soul. One could not have 
passed him in the street without being struck by his appear- 
ance, and without noticing him, so completely " grand seigneur " 
was he, even in his most trivial gestures. Everyone who 
knew him liked him, respected him, bowed down before the 
purity of his life, and the earnest, simple manner in which 
he performed all his duties, even the most trifling ones. He 
was one of those characters one meets with but seldom, and 
which reconcile one with humanity. 

I never saw him again alive after that conversation, and 
only looked upon him once more when he lay on his bier, 
having hurried to Frohsdorf to attend his funeral. The face 
had an expression of great calm, and bore but few traces 
of the sufferings he had endured in his last illness. Bunches 
of roses were scattered on the linen sheet, that covered 
him up to his chin, and over his feet was draped the 
white flag that his ancestors had carried to victory ; that 
flag over which he had watched all his life, and which was 
to be buried with him in the little chapel of Goritz near the 
Adriatic Sea, far away from that France he had loved so well, 
from those vaults of St. Denis, whence his race had been 
excluded for ever. 



122 



CHAPTER XI 

The Orleans Princes 

It must be ovs^ned that the Orleans Princes, at the time of 
which I am speaking, had far more adherents than the Comte 
de Chambord. 

Whilst the latter kept aloof from the world in his haughty 
attitude, his cousins sought popularity by all means in their 
power, and wherever they could hope to find it. They had in 
their favour, first their number, the beauty of their women, 
their incontestable bravery, their unwearying energy, and 
their courting of the mob. Against them was their excessive 
avarice, and the eagerness with which they had hastened, 
as soon as the doors of their fatherland were opened to them 
once more, to claim their confiscated millions without allowing 
their thoughts to dwell for one moment on the sad state in 
which their country was finding itself, nor on the tremendous 
sacrifices it was voluntarily making in order to pay the enormous 
war contribution exacted by Germany, in accordance with the 
Treaty of Frankfurt. In the claim they had put forward 
they had been encouraged by M. Thiers, who, shrewd politician 
that he was, wanted to make them unpopular as pretenders, 
and to minimise the influence they might otherwise have 
acquired. The fact was that this hasty step, which would 
have passed unnoticed had they attempted it later on, made 
them lose considerable ground among people who would other- 
wise have looked up to them, because the idea of a Republic had 
not yet become familiar to the public mind, and because the 

123 



France from Behind the Veil 

Orleans dynasty was essentially a democratic and middle- 
class one, whose instincts did not clash with those of the 
governing and intellectual classes of France after the war 
that had driven the Bonapartes out of the country. The 
reign of Louis Philippe had not left bad memories ; many 
even regretted it. The King as well as his family had known 
how to appeal to the mob, and France had reached an epoch 
in her historj^ where the mob held the first place and had 
to be reckoned with. The King's sons had frequented public 
colleges, associated with other young men of their age, and 
thus had given satisfaction to the snobbish leanings which 
are perhaps more developed in Frenchmen than in any other 
nation, in spite of all their outcries for equality and the 
abolition of all the privileges enjoyed in former times by the 
upper classes. 

The Due d'Aumale had even made himself popular, vv^ith 
a low kind of popularity of which he never succeeded in 
getting rid during the whole course of his life ; but still he 
was popular in his way. I shall talk of him later on, as he 
deserves a chapter to himself, and Chantilly, too, is worthy 
of a description not embodied in a few words. He was 
always considered to be the clever man of his family, and 
was the most respected by his mmierous nephews and nieces, 
partly on account of his large fortune, the inheritance of the 
Princess de Conde, and bequeathed to him by the last of 
that name and race. He had become the master of the old 
home of the Condes, made illustrious by the Connetable de 
Montmorency, and the brave warrior known to his contem- 
poraries by the name of Monsieur le Prince, and to history 
under that of the Great Conde. There was much of chivalry 
in the nature of the Due d'Aumale, more so, perhaps, than in 
the character of his brothers, who were less princely in their 
manners and ways, 

124 



The Orleans Princes 

The head of this historic family, the Comte de Paris 
can be described in very few words : he was essentially 
an honest man, but devoid of initiative ; timid in the mani- 
festation of his opinions ; an excellent soldier, as he proved 
himself to be during the American war in which he took part 
as a volunteer, but a mediocre officer — one born to obedience 
but not reared to command ; weak in character, but firm 
in his convictions ; an excellent father, a devoted husband, 
a dutiful son ; a perfect King had he ever become one, so 
long as his country was prosperous, but an incapable one 
had it found itself in difficulties ; a man always careful to 
fulfil his duties, but certainly not one who inspired love for 
those duties outside his own immediate family circle. He 
did not possess any of the qualities of a Pretender, except 
domestic virtues, which no one asked of him, and which even 
his best friends did not require. Though he was head of 
his house, he never could divest himself of an excess of 
deference to the advice of his uncles, and could rarely muster 
enough courage to speak or to act independently of them. 

The only time he allow^ed himself to indulge in politics 
was at the period of the famous Boulangist agitation, when 
he made the rather naive remark that he had been induced 
to take part in that intrigue because a great Christian like the 
Count de Mun, and a great lady like the Duchesse d'Uzes, 
were attracted to it. This attempt to restore the throne 
of Louis Philippe by the help of an adventurer with a white 
feather in his cap had, as is known, ended in a ridicule that 
had considerably shaken the personal position of the Comte 
de Paris, already made insecure through his own and his 
partisans' many mistakes. The Comte had essentially a 
reasoning mind, but was always filled with abstract ideas ; 
he could never put things on a practical ground. He had 
few illusions but a false look out, as well as a wrong point 

125 



France from Behind the Veil 

of view. Instead of adopting one of two lines of conduct 
which would have been equally dignified — submission to the 
Comte de Chambord, or brave adherence to the principles of his 
ancestors and those of that dynasty of July, " la monarchie de 
juillet," as it was still called in France — he had taken a middle 
course, that of recognising the personality but not the rights 
of his cousin. This made him bow down before the 
universal suffrage that had proclaimed the Republic in the 
kingdom of which he would in any case have been the lawful 
heir. He thought that by his attitude of absolute submission 
to the wishes of the nation he would have inspired it with 
the desire to call him to its head. A false reasoning if ever 
there was one, that was to cause him to take many erratic 
and undignified steps, and which at last exiled him anew ; 
an exile in which he remained until his death. 

The only time that the Comte de Paris ventured openly 
upon a step which could be construed as a manifestation 
of his pretensions to the throne of France was on the occasion 
of the wedding of his eldest daughter, Queen Amelie of 
Portugal, when he gave in his Paris residence, the Hotel 
Galliera, a reception at which all the pomp that attended 
royalty in former days was displayed. It was as ill- 
timed as useless, and was the pretext for his expulsion 
from his country, an expulsion that had been asked for a 
long time since by the Republican leaders, who did not care 
for the nation to become used to the continued presence 
of the descendants of its former Kings. He did not attempt 
to resist, though it is said that some of his partisans begged 
him to allow them to make a manifestation in his favour ; 
he embarked for British shores with a resignation that 
would have been admirable in a private person, but which 
was very near akin to cowardice in the representative of the 
Divine rights of Kings, those rights that Henri IV. knew how 

126 



The Orleans Princes 

to impose, even on such great lords as the members of that 
powerful house of Lorraine, who also, at one time, aspired to 
the throne that belonged to him, and which he conquered 
at the point of his sword. 

Philippe VII. was of a more pacific disposition than his 
illustrious ancestor. He bade good-bye to his lovely castle 
of Eu, and settled at Stowe House, the old residence of the 
Dukes of Buckingham, where he ended his life, after cruel 
sufferings, borne with the patience that was the distinctive 
feature of his honest, straightforward, and distinctly middle- 
class character. With the Comte de Chambord had dis- 
appeared a principle together with a man ; when the Comte 
de Paris expired in his turn, there died a good and virtuous 
person but nothing else. He represented in the world his 
own estimable self, but not the royalty to which he had been 
born. 

About his son, little need be said. Gifted with a more 
adventurous spirit than that of his father, the Due d' Orleans 
began his career by risking imprisonment in France, when 
he appeared there to enrol himself in the ranks of her army. 
He has never made the least attempt to secure a crown which 
does not even tempt him. He has led the life of an idle 
man of means, travelling about, playing at science when it 
suited him, ignorant of the great aims of life ; a man not 
even to be pitied, because misfortune has never touched him ; 
one who has never known what society, his country, and 
the great name he bears required of him ; who has laughed 
at what his forefathers have always respected ; who calls 
himself the heir to all the Bourbons that have left their impress 
on history, but who would be very sorry had he ever to follow 
in their footsteps ; the Republic can well afford to ignore 
him, because he would be the first to be embarrassed by 
its fall. 

127 



France from Behind the Veil 

The Due d' Orleans had no children by his marriage with 
an Austrian Archduchess, from whom he parted very soon 
after they had been united. His only brother, the Duke 
of Montpensier, is still unmarried, and at present the grand- 
children of the Due de Chartres constitute the hope of the 
partisans of the Orleans dynasty. 

The Due de Chartres was the one brilliant figure among 
the descendants of King Louis Philippe. There was some- 
thing dashing about him that appealed to the imagination 
of people. When the Franco-German War broke out, he 
at once offered his services first to the Imperial, after- 
wards to the Republican, government, and when they had 
both refused them, he succeeded in entering a regiment of 
volunteers, under the assumed name of Robert Le Fort, only 
the Comtesse de Vallon and one or two other friends 
being aware of his identity. 

When the campaign was over he remained on active 
service, until the proscription that fell on his brother had also 
an influence upon his fate, and obliged him to retire into 
private life. He had been a great favourite in Parisian 
society ; men appreciated his wit, and women his chivalrous 
devotion to them. It is not an indiscretion to say that his 
love affairs with the Princesse de Sagan were at one time 
a general subject of conversation. He was always a welcome 
guest at a dinner table, and a conspicuous figure in the 
hunting field, and succeeded better than any of his uncles 
and cousins in winning for himself the sympathies even of 
Republicans, who secretly feared his popularity among the 
army and in his own regiment. 

He was a born soldier, with all the intrepidity of the 
fighter who never] shirks a battlefield. People liked him and 
respected him, because with all the sterling qualities of his 
elder brother, the Comte de Paris, he had none of the latter' s 

128 



The Orleans Princes 

apathy. Perhaps, if he had not been a younger son, he might 
have made an effort to win back the throne for his race. 
But reared in principles of absolute submission to the head 
of his house, he never criticised anything his elders did, and 
though I have known him intimately and well, the only time 
when I have heard him talk politics was one afternoon at his 
little country home of St. Firmin on the borders of the Forest 
of Chantilly, when the conversation turned on the trial of 
Marshal Bazaine, over which the Due d'Aumale had presided. 
The Due de Chartres happened to be in a communicative mood, 
and expressed the opinion that he thought it had been a 
mistake on the part of his uncle to have accepted the task 
of judging the unfortunate commander-in-chief of the army 
of Metz. He said that a member of the house of Bourbon 
ought not to have consented to appear before the public 
as a kind of avenger of wrongs in which politics had had 
so great a part. And he added these significant words : 
" We Orleans, more than even members of other royal houses, 
ought to avoid showing ourselves as arbiters of another 
man's fate. It is quite enough to have to carry into 
history the stigma that attaches to us ever since the trial 
of Louis XVI." 

I looked up to him rather in astonishment. 

" Yes," he said, " I understand what you mean, and 
that you are surprised to hear me talk in the way I do, but 
you must not think that I have not often given a thought 
to that fatal act of my ancestor, when he helped an ungrateful 
nation to murder its legitimate King. You see, I belong to 
another generation than the one which saw all those horrors, 
and I cannot consider them without deep regret and shame. 
I can understand a good many things — cruelty, ambition, 
ingratitude, wickedness even — I cannot admit crimes against 
nature, and the vote of the Due d' Orleans belonged to that 
J 129 



France from Behind the Veil 

kind of crime. Beside it, the so-called — because I cannot 
look at it in that light since it was the result of the free choice 
of a great nation — the so-called usurpation of my grandfather 
was a small matter. It only oHcnded and sinned against a 
principle, it did not oflend the natural feelings that ought 
always to be sacred to every man, no matter what position 
he holds in life. And when I rcllect on the trial of Marshal 
Bazaine, I cannot help thinking that my uncle would have 
been better advised if he had kept aloof, and left to others 
the task of asking from that victim of his ambition or of cir- 
cumstances — which it was, it is not for me to say — an account 
of his actions and an explanation of his deeds." 

The Due de Chartres had married his cousin, the daughter 
of the Prince de Joinville and of a Brazilian Princess. His 
wife was a very distinguished woman, who by her tact and 
her cleverness made herself universally liked. They had 
several children, and their eldest daughter, the Princess 
Marie, who was mamed to a Prince belonging to the Royal 
House of Denmark, played at one time rather an important 
part in Eiiropean politics, thanks to the influence which she 
exercised over the mind of the Emperor Alexander HI. of 
Russia. She died young, and the Due did not surv'ive her 
long. The Duchesse de Chartres, widowed and past middle 
age, now spends her time in her little home at St. Firmin, 
having sold the house in the Rue Jean Goujon, where she 
had lived with her husband, and which at one time was a 
centre of reunion for a certain portion of Paris society. The 
only members of the family of Orleans whom one can meet 
in the salons of the French aristocracy are the Due and the 
Duchesse de Vendome, who live at Neuilly, and go about a 
good deal. The Conitesse de Paris comes sometimes to the 
capital, but never stays there longer than for a few days, 
spending the rest of her time either in her palace of \'^illaman- 

i';o 



The Orleans Princes 

riquc in Spain, or in her castle of Randan, near Vichy, where 
her Ufe is entirely given up to practices of devotion and good 
deeds. All her daughters are married. Tragedy has broken 
the life of her eldest daughter, Queen Amelie of Portugal, 
but the Comtessc is placid by nature, possessing something 
of the fatalism that ruled the Comte de Paris, and that never 
disputes the decrees of a Providence it has learned to bless 
whether it sends good or evil to mankind. 

The future of the Orleans family, that promised to become 
so important on returning to France after the fall of the 
Empire, proved to be quite insignificant in so far as the 
destiny of France was concerned. The Orleans had neither 
the courage nor the energy, nor especially the unselfishness, 
to try to win back for themselves the position which they 
had lost. They never had enough initiative, much less deter- 
mination to brave public opinion, and eat humble pie before 
the Comte de Chambord. These things alone could have put 
them back on the height whence they had fallen. But the 
descendants of Louis Philippe never could make up their 
minds to any resolution, whether grave or frivolous. They 
always professed the fallacious opinion that the will of a 
nation ought to be respected, no matter how or in what 
way expressed. France was for them a master before 
whose decrees they never for one moment felt the temptation 
to rebel. They accepted those decrees so well that now no 
one dreams of looking upon them as pretenders to anything, 
be it a throne, or simply the wish to have their word con- 
sidered at times when the vital interests of their country 
are at stake. They always talk, or rather allow their followers 
to talk, of their duties, of their fidelity to the principles that 
made their ancestors great, but in reality they have not the 
slightest wish to put forward their persons in order to secure 
to their race anything beyond the millions which they already 

131 



France from Behind the Veil 

possess. The Comtc de Paris was a dreamer ; the Due 
dc Nemours a saint ; the Due de Chartres a soldier, never 
looking beyond the held of a soldier's activity ; the Due 
d'Orleans a man of the world ; the Due d'Aumale a 
scholar, immersed in his books and his artistic tastes. 
Among them all a man was wanted, and a King could not 
be found. 



132 



CHAPTER XII 

The Due d'Aumale and Chantilly 

The Due d'Aumale was certainly the one member of the 
Orleans family who made the most friends for himself, and had 
the greatest number of admirers. Whether this was due to 
his personal merits, or to the millions which he inherited 
from the last Prince of Conde, it is not for me to say. He had 
plenty to give to others; it is but natural that these others 
praised him in the hope he would give them a little more 
than he had intended. He courted popularity, made sacrifices 
of pride, principles, and sometimes personal affections, in 
order to win it ; and he succeeded in a certain sense, at least 
from the point of view of those who measure praise and blame 
according to the social standing of the person to whom they 
deal it. He was more learned than clever, more clever than 
brilliant ; his wit was inferior to his intelligence, but he had 
cunning, a singular way of at once finding his personal advan- 
tage out of an entangled situation. He put his own well- 
being beyond everything else, and cared in reality only for 
his comforts and being left alone to lead an easy, indolent 
existence among his books, his pictures, his flowers, his manu- 
scripts, aU the magnificences of the old home of the Condes. 
This he had restored with care and a singular artistic know- 
ledge, and had succeeded in endowing it with some of its past 
glories. 

He was a perfect host, even though, perhaps, a little dull ; 
and one enjoyed a first visit to Chantilly more than a second, on 

133 



France from Behind the Veil 

account of the necessity it entailed to perform with its master 
what is called " le tour du proprietaire," to admire what he 
admired, to look only upon what he showed you himself, and 
not to be allowed to roam at will in the avenues of the park, 
or in the vast halls full of lovely things, and of remembrances 
of the past. One would have liked to spend hours contem- 
plating the wonders of art gathered under that roof, to 
examine the sword of the Great Conde, or to look through the 
quantity of interesting documents, historical and otherwise, 
that were kept in businesslike order in the great cupboards 
of the long library, whose windows opened on the meadows, 
where probably the lovely Madame de Longueville had roamed 
together with one or other of her numerous admirers. 

This solitary place required silence rather than the 
casual remarks which echoed through its corridors as the 
motley crowd generally met at the Sunday breakfasts which 
the Due liked to give. These breakfasts were quite a feature 
in the life of the master of this palace, and the queerest 
assemblage of people could be met at them — ^Academicians, 
colleagues of the Due, military men, foreigners, scientists, 
diplomats, men of letters and men of the world, ladies of 
the highest rank and actresses. He made no distinctions, and 
never cared whether he brought together people \^'ho agreed 
with each other or not. There was no link between his guests, 
who forgot all about those who had been their companions 
of the afternoon at Chantilly after that afternoon was over ; 
they never chatted together, and perhaps their host did not 
care for them to do so. He liked to concentrate around his 
own person the attention of those who had partaken of his 
hospitality ; he would have felt offended had he caught them 
talking to each other, and not listening exclusively to him- 
self. He was full of attention to those whom he guessed were 
admirers of his deeds or works, and took a deal of trouble 

134 



The Due d'Aumale and Chantiliy 

to show to self-made people that he esteemed them more 
than those who were his equal in birth if not in rank. For 
instance, I remember one day when having at lunch the 
Duchesse de Noailles and Madame Cuvillier Fleury, the 
widow of his old tutor, he put the latter on his right and 
the Duchesse on his left. The fact was instantly noticed by 
a few Academicians, of what I would call the inferior ranks 
of the Academy, and instantly it was remarked what a kind, 
noble and attentive nature was Henri d' Orleans, Due d'Aumale, 
who thus ignored the high standing of one of the noblest 
amongst the noble Duchesses of France in order to show 
gratitude to the relict of the man to whom he owed his moral 
training. This action of the Duke was just one of these 
things he was so fond of doing, in order to provoke admira- 
tion. He liked to forget the exclusive traditions of his race 
whenever he thought that it would ensure for him the sym- 
pathies of the mob ; that mob which his family had ever 
courted, to which it owed in part its fame and its successes, 
and which despised it for the very facility with which it 
bowed down licking the very dust. Among all the oppor- 
tunist Orleans the Due d'Aumale was foremost. 

Since the death of his wife and children all his affections 
had concentrated on his splendid Chantiliy, the reconstruction 
of which had entirely absorbed him from the day of his return 
to France after the revolution that had overthrown the 
Bonaparte dynasty. In spite of all that has been said he 
had no political ambitions. He knew that he had no right 
to the crown of France, and that he could not pretend to it 
without foregoing all the principles which he did not possess, 
but which he was supposed to represent. Having been 
sounded as to whether he would accept the Presidency of the 
Republic, he had consented to do so, because he had been 
told that he had to do it, but he did not regret that, as events 

135 



France from Behind the Veil 

tiinuxl out, the oaiididvituio ol Marshal MacMahon \vas pro- 
tonvd to his own. He returned to his country home, to his 
roses, his pictures, his wimUs ol art. l\is horses, and his dogs, 
and took up again his easy, happy, careless life as a grand 
seigneiu' of olden times, absorbed in his books and studies, 
able to gather his friends roinid him whenever he liked, and 
to do the honours of his stately domain. Fond ol hunting 
the stiig in his vast foivsts, he was not above coming to 
Paris whenever he wanted amusements that would have 
been incompatible with the grandeur of Chautilly -to kiss 
the hand of a Leonide Leblanc, or to enjoy an lumr's chat 
with the lovely Countess de Castighone, whose beauty then 
was on the \\ane. He was an amiable t;ilker. rather dry 
in his remarks, but always ready to n\ake use of his many 
remembrances and his v'^ast erudition to add to the enjoy- 
ment of those with whom lie was convei'siiig. He told vUi 
anecdote pleas;intly, and related an historical fact with a 
grand eighteenth-century manner, witho\it olWndiug the 
Repubhcan instincts of those who were listening to him. 

His appearance was entirely that ol" a grand seigneur 
of old, no matter whether he was chvssed m his uniform or 
evening clothes, with the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour 
across his chest, or whether he was met wiUking in his park 
in cordmoy trousei-s, and gaiters rather the woi"se for wear. 
His thin, delicate features, with the white tuft on the chin, 
the long, soft, silken moustache, and eyes with a haunted 
look, ivminded one of a pictuiv by Velasque.^ or \'au Dyck. 
The iigure was slightly bent, but wiry and agile, and had 
kept much of the elasticity of its younger dajrs. 

He talked quickly, sometimes sliarply, but alwaj'^ with 
extreme courtesy, and even when disagreeing did so in most 
measured tones, and with the utmost care not to wound the 
feelings of tliose with whom he was in discussion. He had 

136 



The Due d'Aumale and (^Ihantilly 

a sympathetic manner, but riot a k\i]i/)y one by any means. 
The-re was nothing regal about hirn, but there was also nothing 
that was not gentlemanly in the fullest sense of the word. 
And sometimes, when one saw him leaning against the pedestal 
of the statue of the Conn<':tabIe of Montrnontncy, which lu; 
had had erected in front of his palace of Chantilly, or hanflling 
with love and reverence the sword which the (ireat Conde 
had carried at Rocroy, for f>ne short, flitting moment he gave 
one the impression that he was only the guardian of those 
historical relics of which he was master. 

Tlui Due d'Aurnale had never li?),d the initiative to fight for 
the privileges to which he had been born. In 1848, he was in 
command of an important army in Algeria, with which fie 
might have frjiight the insurrectional government with advan- 
tage. He either lacked courage, or didn't think it worth while 
to risk his own personal position as a factor in the France 
of the future to do so. He resigned his command, with more 
alacrity than dignity, and accepting as the decision of his 
country the rebellion of tlrxi few, retired to England, and 
with occasional stays in his Sicilian domains, near Palermo, 
he awaited in retirement and silence for the dawn of another 
day which would allow him to return to the France he liked 
so much and to the Chantilly he loved so well. 

When at last tliat moment came, his first care was to 
use his efforts to avoid the possibility of a new banishment. 
In order to do this he opened his doors wide to all political 
men and to all the literary celebrities of the day. His 
hospitality was unbounded ; he flattered the middle classes, 
who had suddenly become the leading force in France, with 
consummate skill. He tried as much as he could to make 
others forget that he \^as a member of the ancient house of 
Bourbon, with whose destinies those of their country had been 
inseparably associated for centuries. He strove always 

137 



France from Behind the Veil 

to appear to those whom he welcomed under his roof as a 
private gentleman, the owner of an historical place, and as 
a member of that Academy to which he was so proud to 
belong, the membership of which was dearer to him than 
all the glories of his race. He democratised himself, if such 
an expression can be pardoned. He came down from the 
throne, on the steps of which he had been born, into the crowd 
with which he liked to mix himself, quite forgetting that this 
crowd could at any minute descend to the gutter, whither they 
would drag him too whether he liked it or not. 

There came, however, a day in the career of the Due 
d'Aumale when he felt constrained to assert himself, when for 
once the blood of Henri IV. spoke in him. It was when he 
wrote to the President, Jules Grevy, that famous letter 
which resulted in his being sent to join his nephew across 
the frontiers of France. This letter was penned after the 
government had sent the Comte de Paris into an exile 
whence he was never to return, and he himself had been 
deprived of his rank and command. The shock was 
terrible to him, and bitterly did he regret the attack 
of indignation that had made him speak when he should 
have remained silent. As he said himself many years later : 
" J'ai laisse parler mon cceur, tandis que j'aurais du ecouter 
ma raison " (" I listened to my heart when I ought only to 
have heard my reason"). 

He retired to Brussels, which was nearer than England to 
the royal home he had adorned with such loving care, in the 
hope to bequeath it to his race, a living memento of the glories 
of their ancestors. When he saw himself parted from Chan- 
tilly, especially when it became evident to him that he would 
remain in exile until death released him, he took a resolution 
which, better than anything else, proves that in his heart 
and mind his family held but a small place. 

138 



The Due d'Aumaie and Chantiliy 

He made a will by which he left Chantiliy, its collections, 
its treasures, its library, its historical documents, its park 
and forests to the French Academy. And he divulged his 
intention in the hope that, as a reward for the splendid gift 
he was making to her, France would once more admit him 
within her doors, and by restoring him to his home thank 
him for having given it to her. 

This act of selfish generosity has been very differently 
commented upon. Whilst many have admired it, a few old 
men and women, born and bred in ideas of an age when 
traditions, love for one's race, and desire to help it to keep 
its high position and its inheritance were uppermost, have 
bitterly reproached him for having thus transgressed traditions 
that ought to have been sacred to him. 

This attack of " Christian generosity," as someone wittily 
termed it, which made him not only forgive the injury that 
had been done to him, but even reward by a kingly gift the 
injustice of a country which had used him so mercilessly, not 
only estranged him from his family, which, though it said 
nothing, thought a great deal, but also made him lose the 
sympathies of many former partisans of the Orleans dynasty. 
This alienation of the home of the Condes, in favour of a Re- 
publican government, made all realise that whatever were 
the qualities of the Due d'Aumale, they were obscured by his 
unlimited selfishness. 

France also felt the degradation of this gift, and did not 
hasten to reward the donor of it as he had expected. She 
left him for some months in Brussels, alone with the shame 
of his unworthy action, until at last an advocate of talent, 
Maitre Clery, succeeded in obtaining from President Carnot 
the repeal of the decree which had banished the Duke from 
France. He thereupon returned in haste to his beloved 
Chantiliy, where he took up again his former existence, with 

139 



France from Behind the Veil 

the difference that when he recei\'ed at his table the nien\bers 
of the Academy he used to tell them : " ]\laintenant vous 
etes iei chez vous, messieurs" ("Now you are at home"). 
It was related at the time that a member of the learned 
AsstMubly took this opportunity to entreat the Duke to change 
the place of a certain picture which he thought had not been 
put where it ought to have been hung. Henri d'Orleans' eyes 
flashed with indignation at this audacity, and drawing him- 
self up very haughtily he said : " Vous vous oubliez, monsieur " 
("You forget yourself, sir"), to which, nothing daunted, 
the impertinent visitor remarked : " Mais, puisque vous 
venez de dire que nous sommes chez nous, monseigncur " 
(" But you have just said that we are at home, sir"). 

Maitre Clery, to whom the Prince owed his return from 
exile, did not know him personally, and had never been among 
those whom he had invited to his receptions. Consequently 
his action when he undertook to plead the cause of the Due 
d'Aumale with the President of the Republic was absolutely 
disinterested. He had, however, expected a word of thanks 
for his intervention in the matter. That word was a long 
time in coming, too long, perhaps, in the opinion of some 
people. When at last the celebrated advocate received an 
invitation to lunch at Chantilly, he remarked that it came 
like mustard after dinner — " connne de la moutarde apres 
diner." 

The last years of the life of the Due d'Aumale were saddened 
by uncongenial family stories and incidents, in which his 
nephews — so gossip said — figured in rather an unpleasant 
light. Angry beyond words at these rumours, his relations 
with his people became more and more distant and estranged, 
and the big family parties that he liked to gather round him 
in former times took place no more. He kept himself among 
a small circle of friends, and in the society of Madame de Clin- 

140 



The Due d*Aumale and Ghantilly 

champs, a former lady-in-waiting of the Duchesse d'Aumale, 
whom he married secretly, and who — and this is very 
characteristic of him — he left very badly off after his death, 
with nothing but a small pittance out of his many millions. 
Madame de Clinchamps was invariably amiable. She appeared 
at the lunches given at Ghantilly, and visitors found her 
sitting by the lire in the tapestried drawing-room, where the 
Due used to receive his guests. She did not put herself 
forward in any way, and never attempted even to do the 
honours of the place. She must have really loved the Due, 
or else she would never have put up with the slights he show- 
ered upon her, or accepted the false position in which he 
left her, and her devotion to him never failed up to his death, 
after which she retired to a small house on the edge of the 
Forest of Ghantilly, where, at the time I am writing, she lives 
in strict retirement and in comparative poverty. 

I have met most of the celebrities of modern France at 
the Due d'Aumale's lunches. He was very catholic as to 
the people v/hom he invited, and only required them to be 
amiable and to listen well to him, without attempting to 
interrupt. Among his great friends was Jules Lemaitre, the 
Academician, an amusing, intelligent little man, rather void 
of manners, who buzzed about in a way that would have 
been aggressive had it not been so funny. He was full of 
wit, but sometimes said gauche things, the value of which 
did not appear to strike his otherwise critical mind. For 
instance, one day, whilst the Due was showing to his visitors 
a lovely collection of miniatures of the Royal Family of France, 
from the end of the eighteenth century, he interrupted him 
with the question : " And where, sir, do you keep the letters 
of M. Guvillier Fleury ? " The late Due de la Tremouille 
was standing next to me ; we looked at each other, and smiled. 
Evidently a member of the French Academy of the end of the 

141 



France from Behind the Veil 

nineteenth century could not feel the slightest interest in any- 
thing else but Cuvillier Fleury, the bourgeois tutor of a bour- 
geois pupil, such as the Due d'Aumale had proved himself to 
be in the eyes of a certain number of the people whom he 
had made his friends. 

Bonnat, the painter, was also a frequent visitor at Chantilly, 
and his portrait of the Due is one of the best pictures that 
ever came from his brush. The Prince is represented in the 
uniform of a general, perhaps the same which he wore 
on the day when, with a cruelty one would have preferred 
not to have seen in him, he condemned Marshal Bazaine to 
an ignominious death. 

It is related that the Due d'Aumale used to say that he 
would like to die at Chantilly, and that he had even left 
directions how his funeral was to take place. In them he 
expressed a wish to lie in state in the chapel for a day or 
two, near the hearts of the Princes de Conde, buried there 
and respected by the Revolution of 1789. This desire was 
not destined to be fulfilled. He breathed his last in Sicily, 
at his castle near Palermo, and his mortal remains were brought 
back straight to the family vault at Dreux. Chantilly stands 
empty and deserted now, save on the days when tourists 
invade it, and roam in the rooms which have rung with women's 
soft laughter and listened to so many momentous and interest- 
ing conversations. No one, even among the old servants still 
left in charge of the place, ever talks of the Due d'Aumale, 
and mention is only made of the former lords of the Castle, 
of those illustrious and unfortunate Princes de Conde, the souls 
of whom still fill the old walls their fame has immortalised 
for ever. In the Gallery des Batailles, as it is called, the 
sword of the hero of Rocroy still hangs, tarnished with age, 
but now no reverential hand ever lifts it ; only the heavy 
fingers of a sleepy housemaid dusts it now and then. The 

142 



The Due d'Aumale and Ghantilly 

pictures, the portraits, the works of art are in the same place 
they occupied when an intelhgent master had arranged them 
with loving care. In the long dining-room the table at which 
so many celebrities and high-born people sat is still" there, 
with chairs standing round it ; in the drawing-room the two 
arm-chairs the Due and Madame de Clinchamps used to 
occupy are in the same place ; and in the library the ink- 
stand has been left open with its pen lying beside it. Every- 
thing seems a little dingy, a little empty, a little forsaken, 
everything has the appearance of one of those vast temples 
of old, whence, according to the words of the Russian poet, 
" the idols have fled." 



143 



CHAPTER XIII 

The Presidency of Marshal MacMahon 

When a coalition of the different parties who constituted 
the Right in the National Assembly overturned M. Thiers, 
it was felt everywhere, though perhaps none would say it 
aloud, that this event was but the first step towards the 
re-establishment of a monarchy, which could only be that 
of the Orleans family. In fact, the Chamber was almost 
entirely composed of Orleanists. The few Bonapartists 
were too timid to come out openly as such after the 
catastrophes that had accompanied the fall of the Empire, 
but they were determined nevertheless to do their best to 
bring the Prince Imperial back to France as Emperor. There 
were but few extreme Radicals in the Assembly. Gambetta 
was perhaps the most advanced member in that direction, 
together with Jules Ferry and Jules Favre, and their Radicalism 
would be considered Conservatism nowadays. In fact, the 
Left, or what was called the Left, resembled rather an oppo- 
sition as it is understood in England, than a revolutionary 
party such as later on tried to snatch the government of 
the country into its hands. France was still under the in- 
fluence of the eighteen years of Imperial regime it had gone 
through, and respect for authority had not yet died. The 
elections, which had been conducted under the eyes of the 
enemy, had brought back a large monarchical majority to 
the Assembly. That majority knew very well that so long 
as M. Thiers remained at the head of the Republic, a restora- 

144 



Marshal MacMahon as President 

tion, either of the Comte de Chambord, the Comte de Paris, 
or the Prince Imperial, was not to be thought of. The little 
man would have defended his own person in defending the 
Republic. His manner of crushing the Commune, indeed, 
had shown that he would not hesitate before a display of 
force, and would be quite capable of sending to prison 
the leaders of any movement to destroy the government 
over which he presided. 

But when M. Thiers had been put aside, the field was free 
to the Royalists, and in order to pave the way to a restora- 
tion they offered the Presidency of the Republic to the 
Due d'Aumale, in the hope that he would see his way 
to resign his functions to his nephew, and be strong enough 
to bring him back in triumph to the Elysee. 

The Due d'Aumale accepted. Whether he would have 
fulfilled the hopes that had been centred in him is another 
question. My opinion is that he would have shown himself 
even more respectful of the Republic who had called him 
to her head than M, Thiers or Marshal MacMahon. But 
we need not go into suppositions, as his election did not take 
place on account of the Bonapartists refusing to vote for him, 
being frightened at the thought that he might feel tempted 
to accomplish another coup d'etat, and at all events would 
exclude them from the ranks of his advisers. The Due 
d'Aumale once put aside, there remained but two people whose 
names could have rallied around them the different parties 
that constituted the Assembly ; they were Marshal Canrobert 
and Marshal MacMahon. 

The last mentioned was chosen partly because some 
believed he was more favourable than his illustrious colleague 
to the idea of an Orleanist restoration, partly because it was 
hoped that he would allow others to govern in his name. 
They forgot that, being used to obedience in military matters, 
K 145 



France from Behind the Veil 

he would insist on being listened to on political issues, and 
that his very honesty would not allow him to associate him- 
self with intrigue in governing the country, whose welfare he 
would consider it was his duty to promote above all other 
considerations. 

Marshal MacMahon was essentially a gentleman. Not 
superabundantly gifted with intelligence, not, perhaps, possess- 
ing much strength of character, he had, nevertheless, a keen 
sense of right and wrong, a horror of anything that approached 
intrigue, a great respect for his duty, before the accomplish- 
ment of which he never hesitated no matter how painful 
it might be for him to perform it. He was a brave soldier, 
an honest man, but he was no politician, and whenever he 
tried to interest himself in politics he failed utterly in his 
attempts, partly through want of experience, partly through 
want of knowledge, and especially because he never knew 
how to find among the people who surrounded him a majority 
of supporters. 

He never understood why he had been elected President 
of the Republic, and always imagined that he owed it to his 
personal merits. This illusion was carefully fostered by his 
entourage, and by ministers who wanted to persuade him 
to adopt their own views. It was a great mistake on their 
part, because had the ^larshal been less sure of the infallibility 
of his own judgments, he might not have risked the coup 
d'etat of the i6th of May, which threw France into the arms 
of the extreme Republican and Radical parties, which have 
ruled it ever since. 

The first ministers of MacMahon were Orleanists of the 
purest water, and they did their best to bring the Orleans 
dynasty back to the throne, especially after the publication 
of the famous letter of the Comte de Chambord, which sealed 
for ever his fate as a Pretender. They were all, too, gentle- 

146 



Marshal MacMahon as President 

men by birth and by education, and men of learning and 
experience. Two among them, the Due de Broghe and the 
Due Decazes, have left their impress on the history of France, 
and deserve its gratitude for the services they have 
rendered to her. But all of them were Utopian in the sense 
that they believed in the triumph of the opinions they held. 
They never admitted the possibility of new people coming 
to the front, new ideas developing so quickly that they would 
have to be reckoned with by every government no matter to 
what shade it belonged. More especially did they fail to foresee 
the triumph of the Radical and revolutionary elements. They 
considered them as of no serious importance, perhaps because 
they had never troubled to study them carefully, and so 
appreciate their strength. 

It is said that the Due d'Aumale, when sounded as to 
whether or not he would accept the Presidency of the Republic, 
and under what conditions, had replied: " Je veux bien etre 
une transaction ; une transition jamais." Marshal MacMahon 
was to form the bridge of transition from the government of 
a gentleman to that of a political man, such as the Presidents 
who have succeeded him have all essentially been. He brought 
with him to the Elysee traditions that are still respected, 
and customs that have become a dead letter since his fall. 
His tenure of office was attended with great dignity, and 
an amount of state that savoured a little of real Court life 
such as he had known and understood how to represent. 
He did not indulge in petty economies unworthy of his high 
position, and kept open house for his followers and friends, 
dispensing at the same time a generous and unbounded 
hospitality in regard to all who came to pay their respects 
to him in his capacity as First Magistrate of the French 
Republic. His wife, too, the Duchesse de Magenta, was 
a really great lady, by birth as well as by education, and she 

147 



France from Behind the Veil 

seconded him to the best of her abihty — entertaining for 
him on a grand scale, receiving foreign ambassadors with a 
queenly grace combined with the affability of a true grande 
dame. La Marechale, as she was familiarly called by her 
friends, was a remarkable woman in her way, and it is very 
much to be regretted that she refused the whole time that 
her husband remained in office to interest herself in public 
affairs, from which she kept aloof as much as she possibly 
could ; she was exceedingly generous, and the poor of Paris 
remember her to this day. 

When the Marshal had to retire into private life, it was 
found that he had not only spent all the allowance that he 
received from the State, but also a great deal of his own 
private fortune, so that when he gave up his high office, he 
was a poorer man than when he had entered upon it. The 
Duchesse de Magenta, when she became a widow, was left 
with less than moderate means, and had to lead a simple 
existence, devoid of accustomed luxuries. She was a 
very modest woman, and it is related that she was often 
to be met in the morning riding in an omnibus, with a basket 
on her arm, doing her own marketing in company with her 
cook or housemaid. France did not show herself grateful 
for the services which, in spite of his many political errors. 
Marshal MacMahon undoubtedly rendered to her, and did 
not trouble itself as to the fate of his widow or his children. 
The Duchesse only received the pension attached to the 
military position which her late husband had occupied, and 
had her son, the present Due de Magenta, not married the 
daughter of the Due de Chartres, the Princess Marguerite of 
Orleans, he would have hardly had enough to live according 
to the exigencies of his rank as a captain in the French army. 
The example is rare, and ought not to be forgotten, especially 
nowadays, when the first preoccupation of people in power 

148 



Marshal MacMahon as President 

is to lay aside as much money as they can against the time 
when they have to abandon office. 

During the whole time that Marshal MacMahon re- 
mained at the Elysee he kept beside him, in the quality of 
private secretary, the Vicomte Emmanuel d'Harcourt, one 
of the pleasantest, most amiable, and most intelligent men 
in Paris society. He was perhaps the only real statesman 
among the many politicians who surrounded the President, 
and, had he only been listened to, it is probable that the 
monarchical restoration, so much desired at that time by all 
the sane elements in French political life, could have been 
brought about. Unfortunately, the majority did not credit 
him with being in earnest, and the few who did so were too 
much afraid of him not to do all that was in their power to 
counteract his influence on the Due de Magenta. It is related 
that one evening when the President happened to be irritated by 
all these perpetual hints he was receiving concerning Monsieur 
d'Harcourt, he asked him abruptly : " Pourquoi, est-ce que 
vous tenez a rester aupres de moi, et que vous ne cherchez 
pas a faire partie d'une combinaison ministerielle ? " (" Why 
do you care to stay with me, why don't you try to enter into 
a Cabinet ? ") The Vicomte simply replied : " Parce que 
j'ai de I'affection pour vous. Monsieur le Marechal, et que je 
ne tiens pas a vous abandonner aux mains de ceux qui n'en 
ont pas " (" Because I have an affection for you, Monsieur 
le Marechal, and I don't care to abandon you to those who 
haven't"). 

MacMahon became very red, but never more after that 
day did he try to wound the feelings of a man in whom 
he recognised a sincere friend. 

The Republican party has always accused Monsieur 
d'Harcourt of having inspired the famous letter which the 
Marshal addressed to Jules Simon, and which brought about 

149 



France from Behind the Veil 

what is known as " the crisis of the i6th of May." This 
reproach was partly true and partly unjust. It is quite 
certain that the Vicomte encouraged the President to 
dismiss a Cabinet which he considered far too advanced 
in its opinions, and especially because he could not agree 
with the ideas of Jules Simon, its chief, notwithstanding the 
great intelligence and the sincere patriotism of the latter. 
But, on the other hand, it must be said, and it cannot be re- 
peated too loudly, that Emmanuel d'Harcourt always told 
the President that he could not venture upon such a grave 
and important step without every possible precaution to 
ensure its success. First of all he advised the exercise 
of a considerable pressure on the new elections that were 
bound to follow upon such a step and the imprisonment 
of a few leaders whose influence might make them turn 
against the government. He was a partisan of strong 
measures, and had that contempt for legality that all 
daring statesmen have ever professed. The Marshal, on 
the contrary, would never have dreamed of defying the law, 
and he refused to adopt any of the measures which not only 
his secretary but also his ministers — with the exception of 
the Due de Broglie, whose rigid Protestant principles, which 
he had inherited from his mother, prevented him from resorting 
to any violent actions — recommended to him. I have heard 
that on the eve of these elections, which had such an enormous 
influence on the future destinies of France, the Vicomte 
d'Harcourt was discussing them with M. de Fortoul, who was 
Minister of the Interior, and they were both deploring the 
obstinacy of the President of the Republic, who would not 
understand that once he had entered upon the road of resist- 
ance to the wishes of the Chambers, represented by the ministers 
whom he had dismissed, he was bound to go on and to 
enforce his wishes upon the nation. Fortoul knew he had 

150 



Marshal MacMahon as President 

been called by the confidence which the Due de Magenta had 
in his honesty to the difficult post which he occupied, but he 
was well aware that he did not possess the latter's sympathies, 
so asked the Vicomte d'Harcourt whether there was no 
means by which the Chief of the State could be convinced 
that it would be cowardice not to see to the bitter end the 
adventure in which he had engaged himself. He got from 
him this characteristic reply : " No ! One cannot convince 
him ; because he is a man who, though in a position to 
command, has never forgotten how to obey." 

Fortoul understood, and did not attempt further to shake 
the convictions of the President, but prepared himself to lose 
the game which with a little energy might so easily have 
been won. 

Emmanuel d'Harcourt was the man who best under- 
stood that honest, feeble, and in some parts enigmatical 
character of Marshal MacMahon. Apart from him it is to 
be doubted whether anyone save the Marquis d'Abzac, who 
was attached to his person during long years, ever guessed 
what went on in that narrow but well-intentioned mind. 
The Marquis d'Abzac was at one time a leading figure in Paris 
society, and I think that no one who has ever known him 
has forgotten the charming, amiable man he was, the perfect 
gentleman he always showed himself, and the true friend 
he remained to all those who had treated him as such. He 
was the leading spirit of the little Court of the Elysee, where 
he organised all the balls and receptions that gave it such 
brilliancy during the tenure of office of the Due de Magenta, 
when all that was illustrious in France, even the most con- 
firmed Royalists, considered it an honour to pay their 
respects to the Head of the State and to his amiable wife. 
He had the entire confidence of the President, who, perhaps, 
was more inclined to give it to a soldier like the General 

151 



France from Behind the Veil 

d'Abzac than to a civilian with whom his mihtary soul had 
but little in common, and whose subtleties of reasoning appeared 
too complicated for his simple mind. The Marquis had 
married a Russian, Mile. Lazareff, whose mother had been 
a Princess of Courland, related to the famous Duchesse de 
Sagan. His wife had vast estates in Silesia, and though 
he did not live with her yet he visited there often, and 
always made an appearance at the German Court, where 
he was essentially a persona grata, ever since he had accom- 
panied Marshal MacMahon when the latter had been sent 
to Berlin as an Ambassador of Napoleon III. to represent 
that Sovereign at the coronation of William I. as King of Prussia. 
Very often his visits to the German Court allowed him 
to clear up misunderstandings between the French Govern- 
ment and the Prussian Foreign Office ; misunderstandings 
that were often provoked by the state of antagonism which 
existed between Prince Bismarck and the French Ambassador, 
the Vicomte de Gontaut Biron, about whom I shall have 
more to say presently. The German Chancellor liked the 
Marquis d'Abzac, and frequently took him into his confidence, 
well aware of his tact and discretion. I have heard from 
a person very much au courant of what was going on 
in the Wilhelmstrasse, that Bismarck once expressed himself 
to the aide-de-camp of the President of the French Republic, 
concerning the monarchical intrigues that were going on in 
Paris. He spoke with a mixture of contempt and regret of the 
woeful way they were conducted, and of what small chances 
they had of being successful. D'Abzac replied that of course 
it was not for him to venture an opinion on a subject that 
did not enter at all into his activities, but that he had always 
imagined that Prussia was very much adverse to the re- 
establishment of a Monarchy in France. The Prince imme- 
diately replied : " You are entirely mistaken, we have nothing 

152 



Marshal MacMahon as President 

against it, our objection is to the people who would inevitably 
come into power and prominence with it. If we could see 
in Paris a King without those who want at the present moment 
to proclaim him, we should, on the contrary, feel far more 
reassured than we do now at the immediate future both of 
France and of Germany. Neither the Comte de Paris nor 
the Prince Imperial would, nor could, risk position by declar- 
ing a war against us, the price of which might be the loss 
of the newly recovered throne. But we greatly dread 
all the councillors and advisers who would be eager to 
prove before the country who had sent them to represent it, 
that they had been right in changing the form of the govern- 
ment, because the one whom they had helped to call into 
existence was ready to win back for the nation the provinces 
as well as the prestige that it had lost." 

Later on, when speaking of this remarkable conversa- 
tion with one of his intimate friends, the Marquis d'Abzac 
had been obliged to own that the German Chancellor had 
been right in his appreciation of a situation he understood 
better than did many Frenchmen. 

I have already spoken of the obstinacy that was one of 
the characteristics of MacMahon. Those who induced him 
so unnecessarily to assert himself in regard to Jules Simon, 
played on that chord when they persuaded him that it was 
his duty to check the growing tide of Radicalism, and to 
attempt to save the Republic from those who were leading 
it into a path which would alienate from it the sympathy of 
Europe, at a time when France sorely needed this support. 
He imagined that by dismissing his Cabinet he was doing a 
great thing for his country, but being the faithful slave of 
his convictions, i.e. that the nation ought to be free to express 
its opinions and its wishes as to the form of government it 
liked, he did not pursue what he had begun so well, and refused 

153 



France from Behind the Veil 

to allow the Cabinet whom he had called together to fight 
the battle to the bitter end. For thus he might have ensured, 
with the help of some moral pressure, the triumph of the step 
which he had taken more violently than wisely. The result is 
well known, and though the death of M. Thiers, which happened 
on the very eve of the elections, carried away one of his greatest 
and most powerful adversaries, yet the Radical party secured 
a complete victory. One of the greatest mistakes that Marshal 
MacMahon ever made in his life was in failing to resign when 
the result of the elections became known. He sacrificed his 
ministers, he allowed those who had borne the brunt of the 
battle to be ousted out of the field and almost out of political 
life, which for some of them remained fast closed after that ex- 
perience, and he himself, instead of following them in their 
retreat, remained still Head of the State, and continued to occupy 
the Elysee, losing the esteem of those who had considered him, 
until that time at any rate, a respectable nonentity. He 
received the new ministers whom his own stupidity had brought 
into power, he still discussed with them, and he went on trying 
to push forward his own opinions and his own wishes, un- 
observant of all the slights that were continually poured upon 
him. The only time that his Cabinet seriously tried to assure 
itself of his help in a matter of international politics — the 
advisability of making some advances to Russia in view of a 
possible rapprochement in the future — he violently opposed 
the idea, invoking the remembrances of the Crimean War, 
which, as someone wittily remarked, " he had gone through, 
but not outlived." After that no one attempted even to 
keep him in the current of the affairs of the government, 
and after the elections which took place in the Senate, and 
which resulted in a majority holding the same ideas as those 
which already existed in the Chamber, the Marshal himself saw 
that nothing was left to him but to resign, and, bereft of the 

154 



Marshal MacMahon as President 

prestige which would have attached to his name had he 
done so after the i6th of May had been condemned by the 
nation, he retired into private Hfe, and also into obscurity, 
which is far worse. 

By a strange coincidence he died just when that Russian 
aUiance to which he had been so opposed was very near to 
becoming an accomplished fact. Also, he was followed to his 
grave by a deputation of Russian sailors, headed by Admiral 
Avellan, who came to Paris from Toulon during the memorable 
visit paid to that town by the Russian squadron which 
had been sent to return the visit paid to Cronstadt by the 
French fleet a few months before. It was one of those freaks 
of destiny which occur so often in life, that at his funeral, 
too, should be represented the nation against whom he had 
fought in the Crimean fields and at Sebastopol, and whose 
soldiers he had never expected would, together with those 
he had commanded, fire the last volleys over his grave. The 
old warrior, who, in spite of his mistakes and errors, still 
represented something of the glory of his country, and was one 
of the remnants of an epoch and of a regime that had given to 
the world the illusion of a strong and powerful France, was 
accompanied to his last resting-place by the sincere regrets of 
all those who had loved the man, while they distrusted and con- 
demned the statesman, and perhaps even despised his capacity 
as a politician. But his personal honesty had come out unim- 
paired from the trials of his public career, his honour had never 
been questioned, his courage had never been the subject 
of the sUghtest doubt. He deserved fully the honours which 
were paid to him at his death, and the homage that France 
rendered to him at his funeral. 



155 



CHAPTER XIV 

Two Great Ministers 

I HAVE mentioned the Due de Broglie and the Duo Decazes. 
They were the last two ministers of the old school of which 
the Third French Republic could boast. After them came 
mostly self-made men, who were perhaps cleverer than they 
had been but who did not possess the traditions of old France, 
and who brought along with them not only a change of policy 
but a change in political manners and customs. After the 
two great ministers of whom I am about to speak, the Republic 
became democratic, far removed from the aristocratic 
country it had been whilst they were ruling it. 

The Due de BrogUe was the son of remarkable parents. 
His father, the old Duke Victor, had been a writer, a thinkdr, 
a politician and an orator of no mean talent ; one, moreover, 
who, amidst the corruption which had prevailed at the time 
of the first restoration of the Bourbons, had succeeded in 
keeping his hands clean from every suspicion. He showed 
the great independence of his noble, straightforward character 
when almost alone among his colleagues in the House of 
Peers he refused to vote for the condemnation of Marshal 
Ney. 

The old Due's wife was the lovely Duchesse de Broglie, 
Albertine de Stael, the daughter of the celebrated Madame de 
Stael, and the granddaughter of Necker. Madame de Broglie 
was one of those figures who leave their impress on posterity, 
and whose influence survives them for a long time. She had, 

156 



Two Great Ministers 

allied to considerable beauty, a noble soul, a great intelligence, 
and strict Protestant principles, which had communicated 
a tinge of austerity to all that she said, did or wrote. 

Her son Albert inherited much of this Calvinistic severity, 
which gave him sometimes a harsh appearance and harsh 
manners. He was one of those men who never will accept 
a compromise, or resort to diplomacy of whatever kind, to 
achieve anything they have made up their minds to do. 
He was unusually well read, a man of considerable erudi- 
tion, who was more at his ease at his writing-table than 
in a drawing-room. He had never been frivolous, as one of 
his friends once said, and had but seldom shown himself 
amiable. This absence of human passions made him some- 
times unjust towards those who had felt their influence, or 
allowed themselves to be carried away by them. One could 
not imagine a time when the Due de Broglie had been young, 
nor a moment when he had not been absorbed by his duties 
or his studies. He was a living encyclopaedia, and was con- 
tinually improving his own mind by devoting his attention 
to some serious subject or other. When he was elected a 
member of the Academy no one was surprised at it, the con- 
trary would have seemed wonderful because he appeared 
to have been born an Academician, and to be out of place 
anywhere else but among the ranks of that select company 
known as the Institut de France. 

The Due de BrogHe possessed a high moral character. 
He had strong prejudices, no indulgence for others, perhaps 
because he had never had any for himself ; he was narrow- 
minded in some things, but generous in everything that did 
not touch on the question of principles. He came from an 
Orleanist family, and never wavered in his allegiance to 
the younger branch of the house of France, and when he 
accepted office, under Marshal MacMahon, he certainly did 

157 



France from Behind the Veil 

so with the idea that he could in time bring back PhiHppe 
VII. to Paris as King. 

In spite of his apparent coldness and austerity, he had 
strong political passions, the only ones that his soul had ever 
known. These passions made him sometimes lose sight of 
the obstacles in his way, and the natural hauteur of a 
grand seigneur made him despise adversaries that he ought 
either to have tried to conciliate or else to have reckoned 
with more carefully than he did. He was not sympathetic, 
and very few liked him, but this latter fact did not trouble 
him much. The only thing he cared for was to be respected, 
esteemed, honoured by his foes as well as by his friends. No 
man was ever more respectful of a given word than the Due 
de Broglie, and he would rather have died than have broken a 
promise once made, no matter how rash that promise might 
have been. He was certainly not a politician of the modern 
school, and both for him and for his country it might have 
been better had be confined himself to the historical studies 
which have made for him such a great name in modern 
French literature of the graver sort. 

An amusing anecdote is related of the Due de Broglie, 
He was staying with one of his friends in the country, and 
one day took up a novel which, forgotten, had been left on 
the table. With the attention that he always gave to every- 
thing he did, he read it through — it was the " Histoire de 
Sybille," of Octave Feuillet — and then gravely asked his host 
whether one of the heroes of it was still alive ? When the 
latter, more than surprised, inquired what he meant, he 
found out that the Duke had thought the book treated of 
facts that had really occurred, and had not imagined that 
the tale was just a novel. " Why waste one's time in writing 
about things that have never existed ? " he remarked. 
" Life is too short to afford it ! " And when Feuillet was 

158 



Two Great Ministers 

elected to the Academy he would never consent to give him 
his vote, saying that through him he had lost a few hours he 
might have employed in reading something more useful than 
a mere romance. For he could not forgive the fact that 
it had interested him in spite of his abomination for that 
kind of literature. 

One can imagine that a man with such strength of char- 
acter could not well understand the weakness of Marshal 
MacMahon, and it is not to be wondered at that the two 
serious discussions during the few months that elapsed 
between the birth and the fall of that Cabinet were always 
known in the annals of Parliamentary France as " the Cabinet 
of the i6th of May." The Due de Broglie would have liked 
to carry through the elections under the flag of Orleanism, 
to which he was so very much attached, and for whose 
profit, he had imagined, the Marshal had decided upon his 
coup d'etat when he dismissed Jules Simon. When he per- 
ceived that the Due de Magenta had simply given way to 
an attack of bad temper, the disillusion which he experienced 
was very great, but he did not think it right to desert the 
post which he had accepted under a misapprehension, and he 
and his colleagues only left office when the result of the 
elections made it but too apparent that their day had come 
to an end. 

The Due de Broglie never returned to political life after 
that effort. He spent the rest of his existence in retirement, 
absorbed in his studies, and seeking among his books an 
enjoyment that nothing else could give him. One did not 
meet him often in society, but sometimes he put in an appear- 
ance at the house parties given by his son. Prince Amedee de 
Broglie, at his splendid castle of Chaumont sur Loire, once 
the residence of Catherine de Medici. 

Prince Amedee had married an heiress, Mademoiselle Say, 

159 



France from Behind the Veil 

the daughter of the great sugar refiner, who had brought him 
something Hke twenty milUon francs as her dowry. When her 
marriage took place one was not used yet in aristocratic 
France to these unions between the representatives of great 
names and daughters of the people, and one evening at a 
party given in honour of the young bride the Comte Horace 
de Choiseul, well known for his caustic tongue, approached 
her, and showing her a spot on her dress made by an ice that 
had fallen upon it, he said : " Vous avez une tache de sucre 
sur votre robe, Princesse " (" You have a spot of sugar on 
your gown. Princess"). Madame de Broglie turned round, 
and instantly retorted : " Je pref ere une tache de sucre a 
une tache de sang " ("I prefer a spot of sugar to a spot of 
blood"), thus alluding to the murder of the Comte 
de Choiseul' s mother, the Duchesse de Praslin, by her 
husband. 

She is an amiable woman that Princesse de Broglie, in 
spite of her sharp tongue, and certainly she is one of the 
pleasantest in Paris society at present. 

The Due Decazes was a great contrast to the Due de 
Broglie. Just as clever, though perhaps not so learned as 
the latter, he was, moreover, a most accomplished man of 
the world in the fullest sense of that expression. He made 
himself friends wherever he went, even among the ranks of 
his adversaries. During the seven years that he remained in 
charge of the Foreign Office, in several Cabinets, he succeeded 
in winning for France the respect of Europe, and in present- 
ing the idea that though governments might change in that 
country, its foreign policy would not depart from the line 
it had taken. He was frank, loyal, a cultured, gentle, and 
an excellent, though not a brilliant, politician. Placed in 
office at a very difficult moment, just after the disasters of 
the Franco-German War had entirely destroyed the prestige 

i6o 



Two Great Ministers 

of his fatherland, he contrived to raise it in the opinion of 
foreign governments, and to give them a high idea of its moral 
resources and dignity. 

The advent of the Republic had, of course, been received 
with every feeling of apprehension and distrust, and the 
old Monarchists, who had already considerably hesitated 
before they admitted the Bonapartes as their equals, could 
not but look with distrust at the political adventurers who 
had replaced them. The Due Decazes contrived to win for 
the governments of M. Thiers and of Marshal MacMahon the 
respect of all those with whom they had to be in contact; 
he continued, also, the tradition of the grand manners which 
had distinguished the Due de Morny, Count Walewski, the 
Marquis de Moustiers, and all the high-born gentlemen to 
whom had been entrusted, for nearly a quarter of a century, 
the task of speaking in the name of France abroad. He 
renewed old links, and succeeded in forming new friendships 
which were to be very useful to him as well as to his 
country in the future. 

The name of the Due Decazes will always remain asso- 
ciated with the so-called German aggression in 1875, when, 
it is still currently believed in some quarters, the Prussian 
Government wanted to declare war against France, a war 
that was only averted by the intervention of the Emperor 
Alexander II. of Russia, to whom the French Foreign Minister 
had appealed for help. The story has been related a thousand 
times, but what has not been said is that with all his in- 
telligence, his tact and his political experience the Due 
Decazes fell a victim to the intrigues of the French Ambassador 
in Berlin, the Vicomte de Gontaut Biron. 

M. de Gontaut was one of those noblemen of the old school 
who have forgotten nothing, and learned but very little. 
He had intelligence, tact, knowledge of the world, but he was 
L 161 



France from Behind the Veil 

devoted to himself, and entertained the greatest respect 
for and opinion of his personal capacities. 

He had several relations at the Court of Berlin among 
the members of the highest aristocracy, who, unfortunately 
for him, were among the enemies and adversaries of Prince 
Bismarck. He listened to them, appealed to them to carry 
to the ears of the Emperor William, and especially to those 
of the Empress Augusta, many things he would have done 
better to keep to himself, or else to communicate direct to 
the German Chancellor ; he persisted in carrying a personal 
line of policy, by which he hoped to put spokes in the wheels 
of the great minister who held the destinies of Germany in 
his hands, and he allowed himself to be influenced by gossip 
which was purely founded on suppositions and old women's 
love of slander. 

The result of such conduct became but too soon apparent. 
Bismarck was not a man to allow himself to be treated as a 
n^ligible quantity, and he very soon began in his turn a 
campaign against the Vicomte de Gontaut, making him feel 
by slights on every possible occasion that it would be advisable 
for him to retire from the field of action, at least in Berlin. 
M. de Gontaut was fond of his position as an ambassador. 
Moreover, his was such an extraordinary vanity that he 
allowed himself very easily to be convinced that by remaining 
at his post he was rendering the greatest of services to his 
country, because no other man in his place could use the 
resources he had at his disposal so successfully in learning the 
secrets of the Berlin Court and of the Prussian Foreign Office. 

It was M. de Gontaut who started the war scare, which 
existed only in his imagination and had sprung from the im- 
portance he attributed to himself. Bismarck replied in his 
memoirs to the insinuations that were made against him at 
that time, and he proved that neither he nor Von Moltke 

\62 



Two Great Ministers 

and his staff had ever had the idea of attacking France 
in 1875. I do not think that any serious politician now 
believes that there was the slightest foundation for the alarm 
that the French Ambassador had raised. But at that time 
it was generally believed that European peace had been in 
peril for a few days until the Emperor of Russia had put in 
his word and, as it were, forbidden his Imperial uncle to 
fulfil intentions the latter had never had for one single 
moment. 

To anyone who knew Prince Bismarck it would be needless 
to point out how these manoeuvres of the Vicomte de Gontaut 
exasperated him. He judged them for what they were : 
Gontaut's desire to make himself important, and to give 
himself the appearance of having been the saviour of France, 
In a conversation which he had many years later with Count 
Muravieff, at that time Councillor of Embassy in Berlin, 
and later on Minister for Foreign Affairs in Russia, the German 
Chancellor alluded to the incidents which had then taken 
place and expressed his astonishment that a shrewd 
politician like the Due Decazes could have been taken in by 
the nonsense, Us betises, as he termed them, that M. de Gontaut 
was continually writing to him. Count Muravieff, who had 
been in Paris at that particular moment, could have replied 
had he liked, that the Due was not so guilty as it appeared, 
because he was surrounded by a group of partisans of the 
Orleans family, who all pretended to be Mt, courant of what 
was going on in Berlin, through their cousins who were living 
there, and who did their best to corroborate all that he heard 
from the Vicomte de Gontaut concerning the plans of Prince 
Bismarck and his treacherous intentions in regard to France. 

At that period Orleanism was flourishing, and succeeded even 
in influencing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who found it 
difficult to disbelieve all that was told him on every side, 

163 



France from Behind the Veil 

and which he did not suspect as coming from the same source. 
It is certain that he fell into the snare, and that when he 
appealed to Alexander 11. , it was in the iirm belief that a 
new invasion of his country was about to take place. He 
found an ally in the person of old Prince Gortschakov, whose 
vanity seized with alacrity the opportunity that was given 
to him to appear before the world in the capacity of the saviour 
of France. NcAvspapers were put into motion. The Times, 
through its Paris correspondent, the famous Blowitz, started 
the alarm, and soon it became an established fact that it 
was through the intervention of Russia alone that France 
had been snatched from the grip of Germany, The legend 
still subsists with some people ; its chief result was that we 
incurred the enmity of Prince Bismarck, who might have 
acted differently in regard to Russia during the Berlin Con- 
gress had it not been for this unwholesome incident. 

Before closing with this subject I must relate the following 
anecdote. When the German Foreign Office insisted on M. 
de Gontaut contradicting in his dispatches to his government 
the alarming news he had been giving to it, he repaired to 
the house of a lady to whom he was related, and who 
occupied an important position at the Berlin Court, to ask 
her advace as to what he was to do, A council of war, if 
such an expression can be employed, was assembled, in which 
the old Due dc Sagan and his wife, the clever and 
amiable Duchesse, took part, and discussed gravely whether 
or not the desires of Prince Bismarck should be fulfilled, 
and his denial telegraphed to Paris. After long discussions 
it was at last decided that M. de Gontaut would write about 
It later on, but that it would be wisest to allow a few days 
to elapse before communicating the news to the French 
public, and that, consequently, it was not necessary to tele- 
graph anything for the present. They could not allow the 

164 



Two Great Ministers 

legend that the Vicomte de Gontaut had saved France from 
destniction to die so soon. 

It would have been difficult for the Due Decazes to have 
discerned right from wrong in such a mass of intrigue. It 
is to his honour that, notwithstanding the provocations he 
received, he succeeded in keeping calm, cool and dignified, 
and that he tried seriously to do his best for his country's 
interest. He was a slow worker, and this, perhaps, was 
his bane, because the man whom he had put at the head of 
his private chancery, the Marquis de Beauvoir, who was 
his brother-in-law, having married the sister of the Duchesse 
Decazes, was careless in the extreme, and often allowed 
subordinates to do the work he ought to have kept entirely 
under his own control. All these circumstances produced a 
certain amount of confusion, but nevertheless in spite of 
these imperfections the administration of the Due Decazes 
gave great dignity to the Foreign Office, and considerably 
raised the prestige of France abroad. He was not, perhaps, 
a genius, but he was a great minister on account of his honesty, 
his loyalty, the gentlemanly qualities that distinguished him 
and that kept him aloof from every dirty intrigue where his 
reputation might have foundered. When th(j ministry pre- 
sided over by the Due de Broglie had to retire, the Due Decazes 
followed it in its retreat, though asked both by Marshal 
MacMahon and by the leaders of the Republican party whom 
the elections had brought to power, to keep his functions. 
He felt he had nothing in common with the men who were 
henceforward to rule his country, and he persisted in his 
determination to give up public life. He did not long sur- 
vive the fall of his party, and when he died no one ever dared 
to raise one word against him nor to question his deep 
patriotism, and his devotion to the country he had loved 
so well and served so faithfully. 

i65 



CHAPTER XV 

Paris Society under the Presidency of Marshal 
MacMahon 

A great chango came over Paris society after tlic fall of the 
Empire. Some of its most brilliant elements disappeared 
altogether, whilst the Faubourg St. Germain, about which 
nothing had been heard for such a long time, came suddenly 
to the front, partly through its associations with the Marechale 
MacIMahon, who, being nee de Castries, was considered as 
one of the Faubourg, and partly through the certainty that 
prevailed in many circles as to the imminence of a monarchical 
restoration, for which everybody was prepared. It is true 
that the first two years which followed upon the conclusion 
of peace with Germany were dull ones, so far as public amuse- 
ments were concerned, but little by little Parisian social life 
began again, though somewhat on a different plane than 
during the Empire. Whilst the latter had lasted, the families 
belonging to the highest aristocracy, which had ruled France 
in olden times, had kept aloof from the social movement 
that had been so very luxurious and so very gay when the 
lovely Empress Eugenie had presided over it. They had 
lived for the most in the country in their ancestral castles, 
where they had economised, and cultivated their cabbagt^s 
and potatoes. The custom of marrying heiresses belong- 
ing to the bourgeoisie, or to linanciers, had not yet become 
usual, and niilitarj'- service, not being compulsorj^ as it is 
nowadays, had not mixed together young men belonging to 

1 66 



Paris Society under MacMahon 

all classes, and thus thrown down the barriers of social dis- 
tinction. The noblesse had transformed itself into a set, 
into which no intruders were allowed to enter, and when 
the Due de Mouchy married the Princess Anna Murat, the 
cousin of Napoleon III., he scandahsed not only aristocratic 
circles in general but his own family, the de Noailles, who 
looked very much askance at the lovely bride in spite of 
the large dowry she brought with her. 

After the fall of the Empire, the Faubourg St. Germain 
began to come out from its seclusion, to live a little more 
in Paris, and a little less in its country castles. It participated 
in the gaieties, such as they were, that went on, and even 
appeared at the receptions of the Elysee, timidly at first, 
whilst M. and Mme. Thiers presided over them, and then 
more boldly after they had been replaced by Marshal Mac- 
Mahon and his wife. Then the different members of the 
Orleans family opened their doors to a few select guests, 
and the salons of the Rothschilds became a neutral meeting 
ground, where in time people belonging to different political 
opinions saw each other and commingled, at least as regards 
social relations. Sport, which had hitherto been absolutely 
unknown among the better classes, became fashionable, 
and did more than anything else to break down the barriers 
that had divided the different social sets and coteries that 
had lived in solitary grandeur until then. The Embassies, 
too, contributed to bring together representatives of the 
various sections of fashionable France, because the supremacy 
of Paris somehow began to be less absolute than it had been 
under Napoleon III. The fact, also, that the government of 
the Republic had appealed to the patriotism of some members 
of the old nobility of the country to help it in its task 
of restoring the prestige of France abroad — as, for instance, 
in sending the Due de Bisaccia to London as Ambassador, 

167 



France from Behind the Veil 

and the Vicointe de Gontaiit Biron to Berlin in the same 
capacity — ^had done much to bring it partisans, and to procure 
it more sympathy than the Empire had won for itself at 
its start. People were feeling that tlie present state of things 
was but transitory, and that the existence of that Republic, 
which no one had expected or foreseen a few days, even, before 
it became an accomplished fact, was bound to come to an 
end very quickly, especially under the Marshal, who, it was 
firmly believed, would use all his intluence to bring about 
a return of the Bourbon dynasty to the throne of France. 

The Legitimists were also in possession of large financial 
means, which they had contrived to accumulate during all 
the years of their voluntary seclusion. This gave them a 
distinct advantage over the Imperialists, whose exchequer, 
which had largely depended on the liberality of the Emperor, 
found itself in a very low state indeed after it had lost that 
resource. Ladies who had presided over salons that gave 
the tone to Paris society, and whose doors had been thrown 
widely opcm to all who had cared to enter — such social leaders 
as the Countess Valevoska, the Princess Pauline Metternich, 
or the Marquise de Chasseloup Laubat, and the Countess 
Tascher de la Pagcrie— had either left Paris, or retired from 
the world, or lost the means to entertain with their former 
spl(^udour. Of the hostesses of olden days there remained 
but very few, such as the Comtesse Edmond de Pourtal^s, 
the Baronesses Alphonse and Gustave de Rothschild, and 
the Princess de Sagan, and it was at their houses that the 
iirst entertainments after the horrors of the war and the 
Commune took place. It was under their patronage that 
Paris found out it still could enjoy itself, though the wild 
chase after gaiety, which had preceded them, no longer 
existed. And then a few salons, hermetically closed before, 
suddenly started a series of entertainments, at which the Comte 

i68 



Paris Society under MacMahon 

and the (>>rrjte;-isc d(; Paris made frequent appearances, 
ebp(icially after their eldest daughter, the Princessc Amdlic 
d'Orl^ans, who was lat(;r on to become Queen of Portugal, 
had begun to go out into the world. Among them may 
be mentioned those of the Duchessr; de Galliera and of the 
Ducliesse de la l^Jochefoucauid Bisaccia, after the latter's 
return from London, and the retirement of the Due from 
public life. 

The Duchesse de Bisaccia, born Princcsse Marie de Ligne, 
was a most important person in Paris society, over which she; 
exercised a real influence owing to her husband's enormous 
fortime, her beautiful housfi in the Rue de Varennes, and 
the luxury, the pomp and the grandeur that were displayed 
at her numerous receptions. A factor which also contri- 
buted to her popularity was the fact of the alliances that 
united the La Rochefoucaulds to all the oldest nobility of 
France, and the most powerful members of the coterie " du 
Faubourg St. Germain." The eldest daughter of the Due 
l)y his first wife. Mademoiselle de Polignac, was tbf; Duchesse 
de Luynes, the widow of the Due de Luynes, who had fallen 
bravely during the l;allle of Patay in 1870, whilst his second 
and third daughters were in time to become the Princesse 
de Ligne and the Duchesse d'lfarcourt ; his eldest son was 
to marry the only daughter of the Due de la Tremouille, one 
of the richest heiresses in France. 

Personally, the Due de la Rochefoucauld Bisaccia was a 
pompous individual, with the manners of a courtly gentle- 
man, as, indeed, he was, and with just enough wit about 
him to allow him to hold his own among the people with 
whom he lived. He had an excellent opinion of his personal 
capacities, felt himself born to great tilings, and destined 
to greater still. He had a despotic temperament, and 
his way of gn;(;ting thoscj who called upon him, or wliorn he 

169 



France from Behind the Veil 

met at other people's houses, was decidedly haughty. He 
believed himself to be as much above humanity as his worldly 
position and his fortune were above those of the generality 
of mankind. In a word, he carried his ducal coronet every- 
where, and even when sleeping remembered that he had to 
take care of it, or rather that it had to take care of him. He 
did not admit that anybody could forget what was due to 
him, and when, long past middle age he took for his second 
wife the pretty and lively Marie de Ligne, he could not for 
one single instant think that he failed to represent for her 
an ideal husband in every way, or that her fancy might have 
led her to choose a younger and handsomer and merrier 
companion of her life. 

The Duchesse, however, succeeded very soon in finding 
diversion in other directions than in the constant companion- 
ship of her pompous and solemn husband. She was one of 
those beings who always succeed in taking for themselves 
the good things of life. Secure in her position, and having 
very soon come to the conclusion that the Due's vanity 
would never allow him to think that his wife might look 
beyond him for the happiness to which every woman is en- 
titled, she managed to arrange her existence in such a way 
that many roses helped her to bear its thorns. There was 
a time when almost every man of note in Paris society found 
himself one of the admirers of the Duchesse de Bisaccia, 
and also one of her friends. She was always pleasant, always 
kind, always good-tempered, always ready to make others 
happy. Pretty in her youth, she very quickly became stout, 
but this did not prevent her from going about or attending 
any of the entertainments at which it was deemed fashionable 
to be seen. She was fond of dress, but yet always appeared 
untidy, perhaps on account of her corpulence. She generally 
put on her tiara in such a way that five minutes after it had 

170 



Paris Society under MacMahoo 

been fastened on to her head it got crooked and hung on one 
side, but though this gave her whole person an original appear- 
ance it did not make her ridiculous, as it would have made 
another woman. The Duchesse could not be ridiculous, no 
matter what she wore, nor what she did. She was essentially 
a great lady, even when not ladylike, which often occurred, 
because her manners were distinctly unceremonious, and had 
a dash of Bohemianism about them such as is not often met 
with in the circles in which she generally moved. I use the 
word " generally " on purpose, as there were times when the 
Duchesse did not object to visiting, with one or other of her 
numerous friends, places and people more or less uncon- 
ventional. But, somehow, whatever she did or said no one 
seemed to mind, and she remained until the last the favourite 
of a society over which she reigned for nearly forty years, 
and by which she is missed to this very day, 

Madame de Bisaccia was exceedingly fond of entertaining, 
and gave sumptuous receptions in her Hotel de la Rue de 
Varennes, which were considered landmarks in the horizon 
of fashionable Paris. These receptions were very stately ; 
it would have been impossible for them to be otherwise in 
the presence of the Due. During the septenary of Marshal 
MacMahon they were frequent, especially and always honoured 
by the presence of a royalty or two. The Duchesse had a 
grand way of receiving her guests, and when she stood on the 
top of her beautiful old staircase she appeared every inch 
of her to be one of those great ladies of the eighteenth century 
such as we see in the pictures of Latour or Largilliere — a 
queen without a crown, but with courtiers, and surrounded 
by regal state. 

It was rumoured that at these feasts, which took place 
in the Hotel de Bisaccia, many dark plots against the Republic 
were hatched. The Comte de Paris used to receive some 

171 



France from Behind the Veil 

of his adhoronts in a reinoto room there whilst his daughter 
was dancing in the ball-room, and the Comtesse gave audiences 
to ladies who craved to be presented to her, with the dignity 
she had learnt in the royal palace of Madrid, where she had 
been born. It was under the auspices of the Due that the 
leaders of the Legitimist party persuaded the head of the 
House of Orleans that, in order to recover the throne which 
his grandfather had lost, a reconciliation liad to be effected 
between him and the Comte de Chambord ; it was also there 
that a plot was conceived to persuade IMarshal MacMahon 
to lend himself to a restoration, which was not only desired 
but which had been in a certain sense already discounted 
among the majority of the people who were guests at the recep- 
tions of the Hotel de Bisaccia. 

All this is now a thing of the past. Good-natured Duchesse 
Marie died a good many years since, and the pompous little 
Due has followed her to the grave ; their eldest son has 
also disappeared from this worldly scene, whilst his widow, 
Charlotte de la Tremouille, lives in retirement, and moves 
in cpiite a different set from the one which had fi-equented 
the salons of Madame de Bisaccia. The Hotel de la Rue de 
Varenues belongs to the second son of the Duchesse. who 
has inherited from an uncle the title of Due de Doudeauville, 
and who has married the granddaughter of M. Blanc, of 
Monaco fame — a woman with more pride than charm, who 
knows the value of the millions which she brought as her dowry 
to her husband, and who will never play in Parisian society 
the pai't wliich her mother-in-law filled so well. 

I have already said that the eldest daughter of the Due 
de Bisaccia had been married to the Due de Luynes. She 
became a widow at the age of twenty, and never married 
again, preferring to keep her great name and title, and under- 
standing that this would not prevent her from li\dng her own 

17a 



Paris Society under MacMahon 

life in tlic way slu; liked best. She was a ciiarining creature, 
this Duchessc de Luyncs, gifted with great talents, and possessed 
of an engaging manner that was (juite peculiar to her. People 
who knew her well used to say that she had an abominable 
temper, but of this last fact the general public was not made 
aware, and it is (juite certain that sfic was greatly liked by 
nearly all those who knew her. She lived most of the year 
at her castle of Dampierre, which had been left to her for 
life by the Due, and received in great state in that historical 
domain, made illustrious by the remembrance of all the famous 
people to whom it had previously belonged, or who had been 
visitors under its hospitable roof. Ill-natured gossips pretended 
that during her children's minority she had managed to squander 
a good part of the fortune which they Jiad inherited from 
their father, and which had been left under her personal 
control, and it is certain that her son, the present Due, in 
spite of the large dowry which his wife, the daughter of the 
Duchesse d'Uzes, of Boulanger fame, had brouglit to him, 
had to exercise a rigorous economy in order to restore some- 
thing of its past glories to the house of Luynes. But during 
the Ufetime of tlu; Duchesse Yolande no one dared to make 
any allusion to the carelessness with which she had attended 
to her children's interests, and she exercised a despotic sway 
over them, and never allowed them to question anything 
she decided to do. Dark things were hinted about her, 
but we may be allowed to consider them as calumnies, and 
to remember her as one of the pleasantest women among the 
many who reigned over Paris society at the period of which 
[ am writing. 

The La Rochefoucauld was a very numerous family, 
divided into ever so many branches, and owing to the 
similarity of names a good deal of trouble ensued, 
until the identity of all of them was discovered, especially 

^73 



France from Behind the Veil 

to persons not very well up in the mysteries of the Almanach 
de Gotha. 

The Comte de la Rochefoucauld was an amusing person- 
age, and anything more funny than his admiration of 
the family to which he belonged could scarcely be met. 
His whole universe consisted in the grandeur of the 
origin of the La Rochefoucaulds, and the sole reason of his 
existence, as well as the only object of his thoughts, was how 
to persuade others to view it in the same light that he did. 
According to him, God came first and the La Rochefoucaulds 
next, and I am not quite sure whether he did not consider 
in his inmost thoughts that even in Heaven they ought to 
be awarded precedence at the banquet of Eternity over the 
saints of humble origin. 

It is related that one day when he was in England someone 
mentioned the old saying, in relation to one of the most 
noble of the many noble houses Great Britain can boast, which 
speaks of " all the blood of all the Howards," Count Aimery 
smiled modestly. " Yes," he replied, " the Howards are 
great people, but I have known greater ones " (" Je connais 
mieux qu'eux "). 

One can imagine how this weakness of that amiable man, 
for he was amiable indeed, was laughed at, but nevertheless 
he contrived to create for himself a unique position in Paris 
society, and talked so much and so constantly over his right 
to occupy the seat of honour at every dining-table he was asked 
to honour with his presence, that he succeeded in getting it, 
— and no one would have dreamed of den5ang it to him. 
Even when he happened to be in the same room as a 
Duke whose supremacy he deigned to recognise and to admit, 
one was very careful to award him the next best seat. 

Comte Aimery was married to a charming woman, Made- 
moiselle de Mailly Nesle, whose house in the Rue de I'Univer- 

174 



Paris Society under MacMahoe 

site was for many years considered one of the most hospitable 
among the many hospitable ones in Paris. She was most 
exclusive as to the people whom she invited to it, but when 
once she had allowed them to cross her threshold, she never 
dropped them later on, or showed any difference in the way 
in which she vv^elcomed them, even when she did not find 
them quite congenial or entirely sympathetic. She v.as 
rather stiff and certainly dull, and the parties which she used 
to give regularly during the spring season were anything 
but lively, partly because the guests felt that they ought 
not to think about anything else but the greatness of the 
La Rochefoucaulds, and the honour which was conferred upon 
them by their admittance under the roof of a member of 
that illustrious family ; partly because anything that would 
have borne even the most remote likeness to amusement 
or mirth would have seemed out of place in those large rooms 
furnished in the seventeenth century style, where on all the 
walls hung solemn pictures of dead and gone ancestors of 
the hosts. But to be invited to attend a social function, no 
matter of what kind, by Madame Aimery gave one at once 
a position in Paris society, putting one immediately on the 
level of the upper ten thousand who constituted its most 
exclusive set, and by reason of that circumstance any new 
arrival or foreigner aspiring to make a position for himself, 
thought it his or her duty never to miss any of the recep- 
tions given at the hotel in the Rue de I'Universite. 

Madame Aimery de La Rochefoucauld died a year or two 
ago, and the hospitable gates of her house have remained 
closed ever since. Her only son, Comte Gabriel, is married 
to Mademoiselle de Richelieu, the sister of the present Duke 
of that name and the daughter of the widowed Duchess, 
who later married the Prince of Monaco. The Princesse 
de Monaco is a Jewess by origin, the daughter of the banker 

175 



France from Behind the Veil 

Heine, and it was a hard pill to swallow for Count Aimery 
when he had to consent to this union of his only son with 
a girl who, though charming in herself, still could not boast 
of the thirty-two quarterings which he considered as indis- 
pensable in such cases. He submitted, however, with better 
grace than he would have done had a few milhons not helped 
him to do so, together with the consciousness that these 
millions would allow his heir to keep up the state which 
befitted his station in life. Now Count Aimery is an old man, 
far advanced in the sixties, if not in the seventies, and is but 
little seen in society, especially since the death of his wife. 
His greatest delight consists in being consulted in matters of 
etiquette, or being asked to arrange seats at a dinner table. 
His constant occupation is the study of the Almanach de 
Gotha and books of that kind. He is as happy as a man 
devoid of cares can be, and probably will live a good many 
years yet, being so forgetful of anything that does not con- 
cern the glories of the La Rochefoucauld family that he will 
surely even forget to die. Should he ever remember to do 
so, the Faubourg St. Germain will lose its greatest authority 
in matters of social etiquette and social precedence. 



1 70 



CHAPTER XVI 

A Few Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

Among the great ladies who began to receive society in their 
ancestral houses during the presidency of Marshal MacMahon 
can be mentioned the Duchesse de Rohan, at that time still 
Princesse de Leon ; the Duchesse de Galliera, of whom I 
have already spoken; and a crowd of hostesses of minor 
standing within the social horizon, who hastened with more 
or less alacrity to follow their example. The Comtesse M61anie 
de Pourtales opened once more the doors of her hotel in the 
Rue Tronchet, as did the Baroness Alphonse de Rothschild 
her magnificent palace in the Rue St. Florentin, whilst Madame 
Edouard Andre very soon contrived, thanks to her husband's 
enormous fortune and her own great talent as a painter, 
to introduce herself into the most select circles of Paris society, 
and to have all its celebrities at her receptions given in her 
splendid dwelling on the Boulevard Haussmann. 

Little by little social life began to re-establish itself, though 
on an entirely different scale than formerly, and, strange 
to say, society became ever so much less exclusive than when 
a distinct line of separation existed between the Monde des 
Tuileries, as it was called, and the other coteries which abounded 
in the capital. 

Madame de Galliera was one of the last representatives 
of the grandes dames of the time of Louis Philippe, when 
even great ladies got imbued with a certain tinge of middle- 
class leanings, which were the distinctive feature of that 

M 177 



France from Behind the Veil 

middle-class Court over which Queen Marie Amelie presided, 
where it was not considered as against etiquette to appear 
before the Sovereigns with an umbrella, and where the King 
did not hesitate to peel a fruit with a penknife. Madame 
de Galliera was polite and amiable, very correct in every- 
thing she did, and very much convinced of the exceptional 
importance which her numerous millions gave her in the 
world where she moved with more ease than pleasure. She 
belonged to a coterie composed of widely differing elements, 
and where rigid dames could be found together with some 
who posed as such, though with the heavy burden of a well- 
filled past upon their shoulders. Such, for instance, as the 
Duchesse de Dino, who in her young days had been a friend 
of Madame de Galliera, though considerably older than the 
latter. 

At the time I am talking about, that descendant of the 
Genoese Doges and daughter of the ancient house of Brignole- 
Sale was affecting the most considerable devotion to the 
Orleans family, and had put her sumptuous house at the 
disposal of the Comte de Paris, who inhabited it until the 
decree of expulsion was enforced against him. He held there 
the reception on the occasion of the wedding of his daughter, 
the Princess Amelie, with the heir to the throne of Portugal. 
This reception brought him bad luck in general, because it 
was the cause of a quarrel between him and his capricious 
hostess, who, instead of leaving him her vast fortune as she 
had intended, willed a considerable portion of it to the Empress 
Frederick of Germany, with whom she had struck up a violent 
friendship at the time the Emperor was struggling with 
the horrors of his last illness at San Remo. She left her house 
in Paris to the Austrian Emperor, whose Embassy has been 
located in it ever since. 

Madame de Galliera was a very considerable personality 

178 



Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

in Paris society, but no one liked her, and not a few stood 
in fear of her because she could be terribly rude when she 
liked, and had a peculiar way of entirely crushing those she 
did not care for, or against whom she thought she had a 
grudge. Her relations with her only son were peculiar, and 
for reasons it is not for me to discuss he refused to accept 
the slightest portion of her enormous wealth, or to be known 
by any of the numerous titles that belonged to her, calling 
himself plain M. Ferrari, and preferring to earn his own 
living rather than enjoy millions to which he felt he had 
no moral right. His strong principles rebelled against 
compromises, about v.hich no one else would have been 
troubled. 

The present Duchesse de Rohan, at that time still Princesse 
de Leon, was a very different person from Madame de Galliera. 
Mademoiselle de Verteillac by birth, she brought an immense 
dowry to the Prince de Leon when she married him ; it restored 
to the house of Rohan some of its past splendours. With her 
money she rebuilt the old castle of Josselin, and made it one 
of the landmarks of Brittany. The receptions she held in 
her house on the Boulevard des Invalides were exceedingly 
sumptuous and numerous ; some of the fancy balls that took 
place there, indeed, are still talked of. She was hospitable, 
kind, clever in her way, but rather inclined to vulgarity, 
perhaps on account of her stoutness, and partly because her 
whole manner was too good-natured to be distinguished. 
Looking at her, one might have thought her to be anything 
but a Duchesse de Rohan, but she was and is still very much 
liked, because she has always shown herself generous, indulgent 
for others, and absolutely devoid of snobbishness. Madame 
de Rohan has pretensions to be considered a literary 
person, and has written a few books, which her title and 
position in society have helped to make popular. She is 

179 



France from Behind the Veil 

now an old woman, who has known the sorrows of hfe, having 
lost a charming daughter, the Comtesse de Perigord, who 
was snatched away from her in the flower of her youth and 
beauty ; but the Duchesse has kept her pleasant smile and 
kind welcome, and is decidedly a popular personage in Parisian 
society. 

The years that have sat rather heavily on the Duchesse 
de Leon have spared the lovely Countess Melanie de Pourtales, 
who, although a great-grandmother at present, is just as 
lovely an old woman as she was a splendid young one. The 
smile, the eyes, the expression, have retained their former 
charm and the soft melodious voice its youthful ring. One 
cannot call Madame de Pourtales a great lady, in the sense 
which the French attach to this expression of grande dame, 
which has no equal in any other language ; but she was 
essentially the femme charmante of the time in which she was 
born, pleasant, simple, with no shred of affectation about her 
a thoughtful hostess, and a faithful friend to those to whom 
she had attached herself ; moreover, of no mean intelligence, 
of perfect tact, and with a wonderful knowledge of the world. 
She saw at her feet all the men of her own generation, and 
went on gathering the admiration of those who belonged to 
a later one. Her receptions were select, in the sense that at 
them one only met social stars ; they were not exclusive — 
bankers and financial magnates elbowed young beauties in 
their prime, or authors, whether of repute or simply fashion- 
able for the moment. When she passes away she will 
not be forgotten, and her name will always remain asso- 
ciated with the fate of the Second Empire and with the Third 
Republic. 

I have spoken of Madame Edouard Andre ; before her 
marriage she had been known as Madem.oiselle Nelly Jacque- 
mard, a painter of wonderful talent, whose portraits of M 

i8o 



Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

Thiers and M. Dufaure will rank among the most remarkable 
works of art of the end of the nineteenth century in France. 
She had fascinated M. Andre, the son of a banker, blessed 
with a considerable number of millions, who had been one 
of the most fashionable men of the Societe des Tuileries 
towards the end of the reign of Napoleon III. M. Andr^, 
already old and nearly paralysed, had fallen in love with 
the artist at the time she was painting his picture, and finding 
that their tastes in many things harmonised he had married 
her. Mile. Jacquemard proved herself grateful, and made 
an excellent wife to the tired, weary man, who found in her 
what he had wished — a companion and a nurse. When he died 
he left her all his riches, together with his wonderful house 
and the numerous works of art that it contained, and to 
which she considerably added. 

Madame Andre was an amusing little woman, absolutely 
vulgar in appearance and manners, but who moved in the 
best society, and whose entertainments, absolutely devoid 
of stiffness, were as amusing as large receptions can be. She 
was made very much of by the Orleans family, who flattered 
her in the secret hope that she would be induced to make 
a will in their favour, but that hope was to prove a barren 
one, because Madame Andre left all that she possessed to the 
Institut de France, with injunctions to transform her palace 
into a museum. She is supposed to have said, not without 
a certain malice, that in doing so she was following the example 
given to her by the Due d'Aumale, and that consequently 
she believed the way she had disposed of her property would 
meet the approval of the latter's numerous nephews and 
nieces. 

By an extraordinary freak of her rather peculiar character 
Madame Andre, after her marriage, entirely neglected the 
art to which she had owed her former celebrity. She abso- 

i8i 



France from Behind tlie Veil 

lutely refused to take again a brush or a pencil in her hand, 
and was even angry when anyone made an allusion to her 
wonderful talent in that line. It seemed as if she was ashamed 
of Nelly Jacquemard, and yet it was to Nelly Jacquemard 
she had owed the conquest that she had made of M. 
Edouard Andre and his many millions. 

The Rothschild family, who perhaps had been more 
powerful during the reign of Louis Philippe than later on, at 
least as regards the political influence and power which they 
wielded, had acquired a far greater social position during the 
Second Empire, and one which became even stronger after its 
fall, when for one brief moment they transferred their allegiance 
to the Comte de Paris and to the whole Orleans family. The 
Baron Alphonse was a very great personage indeed, and 
one of whom even kings and countries stood in awe. He 
had married one of his cousins, the daughter of the London 
Rothschild, and the grace, beauty, and intelligence of his 
wife won them many friends among Parisian society. The 
couple entertained on a large scale, and their bails, dinners, 
and shooting parties at their lovely castle of Ferrieres were 
celebrated for the luxury displayed at them and for the 
discriminating choice of the guests invited. It was at Ferrieres 
that the Princess iVmelie, the daughter of the Comte de Paris, 
made her debut in society, and later on, especially during the 
Exhibition of 1878, the Rothschilds opened their doors widely 
to the best French and foreign society. The death of their 
eldest daughter, Bettina, married to her cousin. Baron Albert 
Rothschild of Vienna, put an end to those brilliant festivities. 
The Baroness Alphonse hardly ever went out after that, 
and contented herself with seeing a few intimate friends at 
her own house. The only other great function at the hotel 
in the Rue St, Florentin was the reception given in honour 
of the marriage of Edouard, the only son of Baron and Baroness 

182 



Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

Alphonse de Rothschild, with the lovely Mademoiselle Halphen, 
an event which was very shortly followed by the death of the 
old Baron. 

His widow only survived him for a short time. She had 
grown very eccentric towards the last, and suffered from the 
mania of thinking herself poor and obliged to economise. 
Madame Edmond de Pourtales was about the only person 
whom she cared to see, and the latter remained with her 
constantly, never leaving her bedside during her last short 
illness. The hotel in the Rue St. Florentin still remains closed, 
as its present owners do not seem to care much for society, 
and it is very much to be doubted whether it will ever witness 
the sumptuous entertainments that had won for it such fame 
in past times. 

Another house which has passed into other hands, being 
now occupied by M. Seligmann, a merchant of curiosities, 
is the Hotel de Sagan, Rue St. Dominique, where the Princesse 
de Sagan, the daughter of the banker Seilleres, used so fre- 
quently to entertain from the days when her marriage brought 
her into the most exclusive set of Paris society. Madame 
de Sagan was a tall, slight, fair woman, with pleasant manners, 
who was very much liked by a good many men, but had never 
been able to get on with her own husband. He was the 
eldest son of the Due de Valencay and the grandson of the 
famous Duchesse de Dino. He spent right and left, and as 
his father either could not, or would not, give him more, he 
had been obliged to seek among the daughters of financial 
houses a companion of his life. He did not care in the least 
for his wife, though he tried to launch her into society, and 
to help her in acquiring a great position. The Princess made 
the best of his advice, but very soon discovered that if she 
wanted to keep her prestige in the eyes of the world, she had 
better remove her fortune from the control of her husband. 

183 



France from Behind the Veil 

The couple separated after stormy quarrels, that formed 
the main topic of public conversation for a long time, and 
the Princess found many people willing to console her in 
her solitude. From time to time an ugly scandal arose in 
connection with either her doings or those of the Prince, 
who very often found need to have recourse to his wife's 
purse. He obliged her to pay dearly for his silence con- 
cerning things that, if revealed, might have impaired that 
worldly position for which she cared above everything 
else. 

It is related that once when the heir to one of the thrones 
of Europe had signified his intention to be present at an enter- 
tainment given by Madame de Sagan, some relatives had ex- 
plained to her that it would be more suitable, especially in 
view of the fact that the Prince's wife would also be present, 
to have a master of the house to play the host, and to receive 
them together with her. She then began negotiations with 
the Prince de Sagan, who first of all stipulated he should 
be given a handsome cheque of not less than four figures, 
to ensure his presence in his wife's house, and who consented, 
after having received it, to make an appearance in his former 
home, to give a look at all the arrangements made in honour 
of the occasion, and after ha\'ing received the royal couple 
at the bottom of the staircase of the hotel in the Rue St. 
Dominique, to play the host with the perfection that he 
always performed his social duties. WTien the last guest 
had left, he kissed his wife's hand with courtly grace, and 
took leave of her in his turn with a playful remark of some 
kind or other, and for a long time the couple did not meet 
again. 

The Prince de Sagan was considered the leader of every- 
thing that was fashionable in Paris, It was he who organ- 
ised the racecourse of Auteuil, and who helped greatly to 

184 



Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

popularise Americans among Parisian society, where, for 
a handsome consideration, so at least it was rumoured, he 
introduced them into his particular set, where every word 
he uttered was law, which, like those of the Medes and Persians, 
altered not. One used to see him often at the Opera in the 
box belonging to the Jockey Club, wit?i his inevitable eyeglass 
hanging on a broad black ribbon, a fashion he was the first 
to introduce. He occupied two small rooms at the club of 
the Union, not being possessed of enough means and having 
too many creditors to be able to indulge in the luxury of a 
private apartment, and it was there that he was stricken 
with paralysis, from which he never recovered, and which 
deprived him both of his speech and of his mental faculties. 
It was at this juncture that Madame de Sagan behaved with 
great generosity and a singular power of forgiveness for past 
injuries. As soon as she heard of the lamentable condition 
to which her husband had been reduced, she drove to the 
club, and had him removed to her own house, where she 
nursed him with the utmost devotion ; thereafter the large 
receptions and garden parties which she regularly gave 
in spring and which constituted a feature of the Paris 
season, became a thing of the past, and the hospitable 
gates of the hotel in the Rue St. Dominique were closed for 
ever. 

The Princesse de Sagan, who in the meanwhile, through 
the death of her father-in-law, had become the Duchesse de 
Talleyrand, was not rewarded for her self-sacrifice. She 
died quite suddenly, before the Due, who was left alone and 
infirm to the mercies of his two sons and of hired servants. 
The old man dragged out an existence for something like 
ten years or so, and at last died in poverty and solitude, 
expiating his formerly brilliant life more cruelly and more 
bitterly than he perhaps deserved. 

^85 



France from Behind the Veil 

One of his sons, the present Due de Talleyrand, to whom 
I shall refer again, is married to the American heiress. Miss 
Anna Gould, whose divorce from the Comte de Castellane 
made such a sensation a few years ago, but the hotel in the 
Rue St. Dominique has been sold, and already half the mag- 
nificent garden in which it stood has been built upon with 
huge houses, whilst the inside of the palace is turned into an 
antiquary's shop ; bric-a-brac of all kinds encumbers the lofty 
rooms where kings and queens moved with statel}^ grace ; 
it dishonours the famous staircase at the top of which the 
Princesse de Sagan, dressed in the costume of a Persian 
Empress covered with priceless jewels and with a little 
negro boy holding a sunshade over her head, received her 
guests at one of the most famous of her many famous 
fancy balls. 

There was one salon in Paris which was not by any means 
so brilliant as that of the Comtesse de Pourtales, the Princesse 
de Sagan, and the Duchesse de Bisaccia, but which enjoyed 
a popularity that has never been equalled. I am thinking 
of that of the Duchesse de Maille, that stately old lady with 
the many charming daughters who, without any affectation 
of pomp and without the least shade of stiffness, welcomed 
almost every evening her many friends with her bright smile 
and kind words. Madame de Maille was one of those 
women that are but seldom met with, who combine the 
dignity of the grande dame with the indulgence and the abandon, 
if one can use such a word, of the perfect woman of the world. 
She was clever, and she appreciated cleverness in others ; 
she could talk well, and Usten even better still ; she knew 
how to bring into evidence all the perfections and qualities of 
her friends, and she always found reasons to excuse their 
faults or their imperfections. She was discreet, and never 
made use of the many confidences that were constantly poured 

i86 



Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

into her ear ; she had always ready some good advice to give 
to those who required it, and she Hked to see people happy 
around her, to watch young people amuse themselves, and 
though excessively strict in everything that was connected 
with appearances, so very polite that somehow in her presence 
no one dreamed of breaking the code established by society 
in that respect. Madame de Maille loved politics, and enjoyed 
exceedingly the conversation of literary people. Almost all 
the celebrities that Paris could boast of were the habitues 
of her salon. She used to receive them seated by her fireside, 
in her plain black gown, with a lace cap over her silvery hair 
and her everlasting knitting in her hands. She at once put 
them at their ease, and found out the most appropriate things 
to tell them. Her house was restful in our age of restlessness, 
and though there was not the least shade of hauteur 
about the old Duchesse, the last representative of the ancient 
family of the Marquis d'Osmond, yet one felt at once, 
on seeing her, that one stood in the presence of a really 
great lady. 

Now this hospitable salon is also a thing of the past. The 
Duchesse de Maille has been dead these last ten years or so, 
and all her children have settled in houses of their own. Her 
daughters, Madame de Nadaillac, the Marquise de Ganay, 
and Madame de Fleury, though all distinguished and amiable 
women, perhaps because they are still too young, have not 
acquired that inimitable charm, ease in their manners, and 
dignity in their bearing which belonged exclusively to their 
charming mother. 

The Duchesse de Maille was an exception among the old 
ladies of aristocratic Paris. There was no stiffness, such as, 
for instance, distinguished the old Princesse de Ligne and 
the Duchesse de Mirepoix, and some others whose names 
I have already forgotten. I do not think that anything more 

187 



France from Behind the Veil 

solemn than the receptions of the Princess de Ligne have 
ever been invented. She was a Pole by birth, belonging to 
the old famih' of Liibomirski, a representative of which, 
Prince Joseph Liibomirski, was at one time a well-known 
bonlevardier. Anji:hing more formidable in the shape of a 
dowager could hardly be found in the whole world. One 
could not dream even of sitting in a chair in her august presence, 
and generally dropped do^^'n meekly on one of the numerous 
stools which adorned her dra^^■ing-room and which reminded one 
of a church without an altar. She was ill-natured, too, cruel 
when she liked — and she liked it often; severe in her judg- 
ments, and inexorable in her decisions. Her numerous grand- 
children were all afraid of her, and when she decided that 
the head of the house of Ligne was to marry her own grand- 
daughter, Mile, de La Rochefoucauld Bisaccia. neither one 
nor the other, to their o\Nn future sorrow, dared to say a word 
in opposition, for never was there a union more ill-assorted. 
WTien it ended in a divorce no one felt surprised. At the 
time this last-mentioned fact took place the Princess Hed- 
wige de Ligne had long been dead. 

There were other houses in Paris which, perhaps, were 
less select, but certainly more amusing and agreeable than 
those in the high circles I have just mentioned. There existed 
salons which were truly Bohemian, but which also exercised 
a considerable influence on the sayings and doings of society. 
I have mentioned already old Madame Lacroix, whose house 
saw purely literary receptions, and at whose hospitable hearth 
all the distinguished foreignei-s who arrived in Paris used to 
meet. Then there was the salon of Madame Aubernon de 
Nerville, where Academicians were usually to be met, that 
of Madame de Luynes, and last, but not least, the salon of 
Madame Juliette Adam, who wielded a really regal power 
among a certain set, and who certainly' succeeded in being 

i8S 



Prominent Parisian Hostesses 

considered ab a political power, especially after Gambetta 
began to seek her advice in matters pertaining to the affairs 
of the government. But this last house, as well as its 
amiable and clever mistress, deserve more than a passing 
mention ; they require a chapter to themselves in order to 
be duly appreciated. 



iBg 



CHAPTER XVII 

Madame Juliette Adam 

It will be hardly possible ever to write a history of the Third 
Republic without mentioning Madame Juliette Adam, the 
beautiful, clever and attractive woman whose influence at 
the end of the nineteenth century, not only on some of the 
most important personalities in France but also on many 
foreign notabilities, was so considerable. Her efforts and 
influence had much to do with the development of the events 
which ultimately led to the consolidation of the French 
Republic, and \Nhich, after having been the object of her most 
ardent worship, ended by finding her one of its enemies. 
Some people are born under a lucky star; upon them every- 
thing smiles, and they can do nothing that fails to turn 
out well. Such a being was the lovely Juliette la Messine, 
who, timid and still unaware of her own personal attractions, 
appeared on the horizon of Paris society at one of the parties 
given by the Comtesse d'Agoiilt. The Countess \N"as " Daniel 
Stern " in the world of letters, the mother of Cosima Wagner 
and Madame Emile Ollivier, and the heroine of the most 
lasting romance in the life of the composer Liszt. Madame 
d'Agoult, about whom I cannot say much because I have never 
met her, was in the late 'fifties a very important personage 
in Parisian society, though her own circle had repudiated 
her since the scandal of her adventure with Liszt. But though 
very few women cared to be seen at her house, most men of 
note, whether in politics or in the world of letters, considered 

190 



Madame Juliette Adam 

it an honour to be asked to her house. She presided over 
a salon that dictated the tone in many things, and where she 
succeeded in grouping together many celebrities who, perhaps, 
but for her would never have had an opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with each other. 

Juliette la Messine, then in the full bloom of her fair 
beauty, had just written a book of philosophy and criticism 
called " Les Idees anti-Proudhoniennes," which was a reply 
to an attack made by Proudhon on Georges Sand and on 
Madame d'Agoult herself. She sent a copy of her book to 
Daniel Stern, who was very much struck by its virile, lucid 
composition, and thinking it was the work of a man who, 
in order to disguise his identity, had assumed a woman's 
name, wrote in reply to the author, that she felt surprised 
at his having taken a feminine pseudonym, while women 
generally tried to pass ofi as men in their writings. When 
she saw Mile, la Messine she was at once attracted by her 
peculiar and wonderful charm ; a friendship that was only to 
come to an end with the life of the Comtesse d'Agoult was 
at once formed between the two women, who had a great deal 
in common, and who were both enthusiastic, eager to perform 
noble deeds and to work for the welfare of humanity. It 
was also at one of the receptions of Daniel Stern that Juliette 
la Messine met for the first time Edmond Adam, whom she 
was to marry later on and under whose name she was to reach 
celebrity. 

One of the results of their marriage was the creation of 
a new salon in Paris, which very soon became a centre of 
political activity. It was at the time when the Republican 
party, vanquished by the coup d'etat of Napoleon III., by 
which he had definitely imposed himself and his dynasty 
upon a more surprised than terrified France, was beginning 
to raise its head again. Thiers, who at that particular moment 

igi 



France from Behind the Veil 

thought fit to join the ranks of the enemies of the Empire, 
was continually reproaching Edmond Adam for his hesitation 
to throw himself into the battle, and was inviting him to 
work with all his strength for the overthrow of the Bonapartes, 
adding, what in fact he did not beheve but he thought it to 
his advantage to seem to profess, that no government was 
possible in France except a Republic. Adam then said to his 
wife the following memorable words which she repeats in her 
memoirs : "I am quite ready to work for the Republic, more 
and better than I have done hitherto, but what can absten- 
tionists like ourselves do for her ? " Husband and wife 
organised their salon as a meeting place where adherents of 
Republican ideas could gather together and exchange their 
ideas and opinions. The parties given by Thiers in his hotel 
in the Rue St. Georges were generally frequented by the older 
members of the party, whilst the younger ones assembled 
with Laurent Pichat ; both young and old could be met in the 
house of Madame Adam, who, with all the charm of her lovely 
face and the elegance of her graceful manners, made a most 
delightful hostess. The first people who assembled around her 
were for the most part literary men like Henri Martin, Legouve, 
Hetzel the editor, Gaston Paris, Bixio, Garnier-Pages, Toussenel, 
Nefftzer, Texier, Challemel-Lacour, Jules Ferry, Pelletan — 
all men well worthy to be appreciated by her. Some are 
already forgotten, whilst others will never be consigned to 
oblivion by those who follow them on the road of life. But 
very soon she tried to draw towards her all the younger 
forces of the Republican party, concentrating her attention 
specially upon Gambetta. She did not, in the early days, 
know him, but Adam, who had met him at a dinner with 
Laurent Pichat, had spoken to her of him with an en- 
thusiasm that surprised her the more because he was not 
generally addicted to such expansive feelings. In this con- 

192 



Madame Juliette Adam 

nection she relates with humour that she spoke to Hetzel, 
and asked him to bring to one of her dinners the young 
a:dvocate, who had made for himself such a name already 
and whose reputation at the Bar was fast becoming consider- 
able, especially since he had defended Delescluze against 
the government. Hetzel screamed with surprise when she 
proposed it, declaring that she did not know the man whom 
she proposed to admit at her hospitable table. Gambetta, 
he told her, was a vulgar, common sort of individual, blind 
of one eye, dirty and unkempt, with black nails, and walking 
about in disreputable clothes which, to add to his uncouth 
appearance, were never properly put on or properly fastened. 
Madame Adam insisted nevertheless. Her womanly instinct 
had guessed that if the man in question was really in posses- 
sion of the genius attributed to him, it would be easy for him 
when once admitted in the houses of civilised people to adopt 
their manners and to polish his own. On the other hand, if 
he failed to notice the inadequacies of his first education, he 
would not be the man of value she had been led to think he 
could become, and in that case it would be easy to drop him 
after this first attempt at drawing him from the society with 
which he had hitherto associated. But she wanted to judge 
for herself, she persisted with Hetzel, and at last persuaded 
him to take her invitation to Gambetta. 

The young advocate was at first very much surprised. 
He knew Edmond Adam, had vaguely heard he had a wife, 
but had never troubled to think about her much, therefore 
he was rather astonished to find himself the object of her 
attention ; still he decided to go, saying at the same time 
to one of his friends of the Cafe Procope, where he generally 
used to spend his afternoons : "I shall accept ; it will be 
curious to see what kind of woman Adam's bourgeoise may 
be." 

N 193 



France from Behind the Veil 

A large and distinguished company had been asked to 
meet the Republican orator. Laurent Pichat, Eugene Pelletan, 
Challemel-Lacour, Jules Ferry, Hetzel, of course, and, lastly, 
the Marquis Jules de Lasteyrie, an intimate friend of Thiers 
and an ardent Orleanist, who, moreover, was one of the most 
elegant men in Paris, The latter had begged hard to be 
included in that dinner, as he was excessively interested in 
Gambetta, and having arrived a little in advance of the other 
guests, he said to Madame Adam that he would repeat all 
the incidents of the dinner to Thiers, whom he knew to be 
very anxious to hear his opinion about " the young monster," 
as he called him. 

Gambetta had imagined that he was going to one of those 
houses where an utter absence of the conventionalities of 
life is the order of the day, and that consequently he would 
not be required, as it were, even to wash his hands before 
making his appearance at the hospitable board to which 
he had been bidden. He arrived in one of those indescribable 
costumes which are neither evening nor morning dress, with 
a waistcoat buttoned high up to the throat and a flannel 
shirt. He found the whole company in orthodox evening 
dress, and his hostess in a lovely velvet costume, out of which 
the most beautiful pair of shoulders were looming in their 
snowy whiteness. He tried to excuse himself, saying vaguely : 
" If I had only guessed." " You probably would have refused 
my invitation," replied his hostess, "It is not nice of you 
to say so." 

Everybody felt more or less embarrassed. Lastejnrie, 
who was always indulgent with the extravagances of mankind, 
could not help whispering into Adam's ear : " If at least 
he had donned the blouse of the common workman, I could 
have forgiven him, but this kind of get up ! " And he made 
a gesture of despair. 

194 



Madame Juliette Adam 

No woman alive had greater tact than Madame Adam. 
Seeing the embarrassment of Gambetta, as well as the look 
of disgust with which her other guests observed him, she went 
up to the Marquis de Lasteyrie, and in a low voice told him 
that in order to try and mend matters she was going to 
dispossess him from the seat of honour which belonged to 
him by right, and to give her arm to Gambetta. " You are 
quite right," replied the Marquis. " If you did anything 
else, the servants might be tempted to forget to offer him 
some soup. And besides, this will allow us to see whether 
he understands great things and their meaning." 

Juliette Lambert, to give her her pseudonym in literature, 
to her husband's amazement, walked up to Gambetta, and 
took his arm to go down to the dining-room. When they 
were seated, the Radical leader bent down towards her ear, 
and in very humble tones told her that he would never 
forget the lesson she had given to him in such a delicate 
manner. He understood the meaning of great things, and 
had emerged to his honour from a very trying experience. 

It was, however, much later that Gambetta became a 
regular visitor at the house of Madame Adam. Years had 
passed since his first introduction to her, and poor Juliette 
Lambert had gone through bitter trials that had left their 
everlasting impress on her ardent and enthusiastic nature. 
The war with all its horrors, the Commune with all its terrors, 
had shaken her bright equanimity, and in that generous 
soul one feeling had taken the place of almost every other — 
a deep love for her poor humiliated country ; a passionate 
desire to see her once more occupying the proud position 
from which fate and the mistakes of men had despoiled her. 
Later on, when the husband she loved so fondly was snatched 
away from her, and when, beside her daughter and the children 
of the latter, she found herself with no one to love in the 

J 95 



France from Behind the Veil 

whole wide world, she attached herself to that one idea and 
ambition — to revenge the humiliations of 1870, to get back 
for that France, to whom all her energies were devoted, those 
provinces which she had lost, and to revenge herself on the 
conqueror to whom she had owed the shattering of so many 
of her brightest dreams. 

She had always been the enemy of the Bonaparte dynasty ; 
she could not, though she was on very good terms with several 
members of the Orleans family, reconcile herself to their 
stepping upon the throne left vacant by Napoleon III. She 
had always adored liberty, that of nations as well as that of 
individucJs, and she imagined that that ideal Republic she 
had dreamt of could be brought into existence and would be 
able to give back to France her glory and prestige. 

This one idea dominated all her actions and inspired 
all her writings. She used all the resources of her wonderful 
intelligence, all the activity of her remarkable mind, and 
all her knowledge and her experience of the world to realise 
it. She opened once more the doors of her salon, which had 
remained closed after the death of Edmond Adam, and though 
at the bottom of her heart an inconsolable widow, she forced 
herself to present to the glances of others the appearance 
of a woman without heartache. Everybody who approached 
her, even those who did not share her opinions either in politics 
or in intellectual and moral matters, fell under the influence 
of her charm, and were subjugated by her enthusiasm and 
her earnest, ardent words. One could see at a glance that 
she was sincere, true — a friend on whom one could always 
rely, and an enemy who would always fight loyally. More- 
over, her clear mind had the facult}'^ of looking into the 
future with an extraordinary perspicacity, and she seldom 
was mistaken in her judgments of men or facts. She 
it was who for the first time suggested to her friends the 

196 



Madame Juliette Adam 

possibility of an alliance with Russia, by which French prestige 
might be strengthened. She it was who began working foi 
it at a time when even wise political men in both countries 
only smiled when such a thing was mentioned in their presence. 

It has been said that she was an irreconcilable enemy of 
Germany. In a certain sense this was true, but there was 
no preconceived hatred in her feelings. She detested Germans 
because she had seen them trampling her unfortunate country 
under their feet, because she had owed to them some of the 
bitterest hours she had had to go through in her life. Yet 
she had no aversion to German culture, and could recognise 
the great qualities of the German race, qualities which, per- 
haps, gave her even more reasons to detest it. She was 
above everything else just. Her character had too much 
real greatness about it ever to give way to any mean or 
petty feeling, even where an enemy was concerned. 

When I lived in Paris I used to see her daily. She was 
then at the height of her beauty and fame, and political men 
of all shades used to crowd to her receptions, and to bow 
down before her splendid grace and proud demeanour. She 
was considered as the real Queen of the Third Republic, and 
no important political measure was undertaken by any member 
of the government of that day without her having been con- 
sulted about its opportuneness. No one ever regretted having 
asked her advice or trusted to the clearness of her judgments ; 
nor could any say that she had revealed the slightest fraction 
of all the secrets of state which had been confided to her. 

I do not believe a more discreet person ever lived, and 
it is a great deal to that immense and so rare quality that 
she owed the influence she managed to acquire with all, with- 
out exception, who came into contact with her. I can talk 
about it the more easily because on several different occasions 
I had the opportunity to convince myself personally of her 

197 



France from Behind the Veil 

discretion. Most certainly among her many qualities I 
believe it was the latter that her friends, and among them 
Gambetta, appreciated the most in her. The great orator 
had never forgotten that first dinner to which she had asked 
him, and later on, when the fall of the Empire had drawn 
them more together, he began, with discretion at first and 
with impetuosity at last, to consult her and to confide in her 
all his dreams of glory. She grew not only to like him, but 
to feel for him a great, deep, true affection, one of those that 
a woman can only experience when she has reached middle 
life, known what the storms of the heart mean, and, greatest 
joy of all, felt what it is to be everything and yet nothing 
in another man's life. One can boldly affirm that it was she 
who made Gambetta what he became in the later years of 
his life, that it was to her he owed the great development 
of his fighting qualities, as well as the great dignity of which 
he gave proofs in so many important questions, a dignity that 
in those long bygone days, when he had appeared with a 
flannel shirt at the first dinner given in his honour by Juliette 
ILambert, no one supposed he could ever attain. Gambetta, 
who also could very quickly discover the good and the bad 
sides of the people with whom he was thrown into contact, 
rKperienced in time for her a reverence such as he had never 
imagined he could feel for any woman in the wide world. 
He not only admired her mind, but he also recognised the 
great superiority which her culture, apart from everj^hing 
else, gave her over him, and he soon turned to her to solve 
all his doubts, and to be advised as to all that he was to do 
to successfully reach the eminence to which he had aspu^ed 
from the first day he arrived in Paris, a poor student, with 
hardly enough money in his pocket to be able to dine every 
day. 

But, strange to say, when one thinks of the exceptional 

igS 



Madame Juliette Adam 

physical advantages and charm of Madame Adam, he never 
for one single moment allowed himself to pay any banal 
attentions to her ; she perhaps was not quite so devoid of 
a nearer feeling of attraction towards him. 

In truth, Gambetta placed her so high in his thoughts 
that it had never occurred to him to discover that 
underneath the adviser and counsellor, to whom he turned 
for comfort and encouragement at almost every instant of 
his life, there could exist a fair, beautiful woman with a 
womanly heart and womanly feelings. He did not realise 
that, in associating herself with his dreams and his ambitions, 
she also associated with them, perhaps even unknown to herself, 
her own future and her own existence. Perhaps this mis- 
understanding, which circumstances and not their own will 
had created between them, influenced their relations towards 
the end of the life of Gambetta, but, let it be said to the honour 
of Madame Adam, she never allowed the ignorance of her charms 
in which her friend indulged to influence her friendship for 
him, and, with a strength of character such as very few women 
would have been capable of, she sacrificed herself to his future 
and only thought of his successes. She tried to persuade 
herself of the fact she had contrived long ago to impress 
upon others, i.e. that she was living only for her child 
and for her country, and that she was above everything 
a great patriot, " une grande frangaise," and nothing 
else. 

She still believed in the Republic at that period of life 
when I first met her. She still hoped that it would bring 
to her beloved France the peace and the prosperity she so 
passionately desired for it. Later on, however, she was 
destined to experience in that hope, too, some of the greatest 
disappointments of her whole life. For a woman with high 
ideals and a great moral aim, as was the case with her, nothing 

199 



France from Behind the Veil 

could be harder to bear than the slow realisation that she 
had nursed a false ideal, the conviction that she had wor- 
shipped at a wrong altar. And yet this great trial was not 
spared to her who had already suffered so much. Little by 
little the scales had fallen from her eyes, and she discovered 
that personal ambitions, personal greed, and personal intrigues 
flourish just as much and just as well, and perhaps even more, 
under a republic than under a monarchy. She saw that 
humanity remains unchangeable, whilst things undergo many 
transformations, that bad passions never die, and that good 
and virtuous people are always the victims of those who 
are their inferiors in moral worth. 

I remember one evening that I happened to be alone with 
Gambetta, at about the time that he became Prime Minister, 
we discussed together Madame Adam. He spoke of her with 
feelings not only of reverence, but also with an admiration 
the more remarkably expressed in that it was done without 
the usual enthusiasm which he generally displayed when 
talking about things or people who were near to his heart. 
He told me that but for her he would certainly never have 
reached to the political eminence on which he found himself. 
We were old friends, and I could allow myself to touch upon 
delicate subjects with him ; so I ventured to ask him 
whether the beauty of Juliette Lambert had ever made an 
impression on him. He replied without the slightest hesitation 
that he had never thought about it, so perfectly superior she 
had appeared to him, intellectually, and so entirely he had put 
her upon a pedestal whence he had never once thought that 
she could come down. I asked him then brutally why the 
thought of the great things he could have achieved together 
with her, had he made of her the companion of his life, had 
never struck him. Gambetta looked at me very closely, 
then after a few moments of silence softly said : "I would 

200 



Madame Juliette Adam 

never have dared to allow my thoughts to rest upon that idea, 
I know myself but too well, and I would not have had the 
courage to make her unhappy. Believe me, that woman 
would never suffer more from anything than from the loss 
of her illusions, and she sees in me the man she has created, 
not the man that in reality I am." 

I have often thought of these words, of the great Republican 
leader, especially when in later years, long after he had entered 
into eternal rest, I saw Madame Adam once again on my 
return to Paris after a long absence. A great transformation 
had taken place in her. She had witnessed that loss of her 
illusions to which her friend had referred, and suffered from 
it just as he had foreshadowed. She had seen her beloved 
France not able to come out of the mesh of intrigues and 
miseries into which the man who by the force of events had 
become ruler had entangled France, and she had realised that 
her conception of a Republic, such as she had dreamt of, was 
an impossibility ; that it is not by changing its form of govern- 
ment a nation rises to greatness and glory. She had been obliged 
to assist, powerless to avert it, the destruction of all the plans 
which she had made together with those men who had been 
her friends, and among whom so many had become her 
adversaries, according as the gulf of the opinions that had 
come to divide them had grown broader and broader. She 
had experienced that grief which is so very acute to a warm, 
womanly heart such as hers, of finding that she had no 
longer the power to influence those who formerly had 
cherished the same high ideals that in that beautiful world 
her imagination had conjured she had placed before every- 
thing else. 

Death, too, had robbed her of much that she had 
leaned upon, both in France and abroad ; she had undergone 
those fiery trials out of which noble souls emerge greater, 

20 1 



France from Behind the Veil 

nobler, more valiant and splendid than before, but under the 
weight of which vulgar natures are destroyed. After all 
these moral struggles and inward battles she had acquired 
even more courage, more indulgence, more charity, and more 
faith in the Infinite, and in an Eternity to which perhaps 
she had not given much attention in the days of her youth, 
when the world was at her feet and sovereigns bowed before 
her inimitable grace. To these consolations her tired, weary 
soul turned when everything else had failed her. The trans- 
formation that has taken place in the personality of Juliette 
Lambert is one of those phenomena that, when met with, 
remains always the subject of the deepest admiration on 
the part of those who have watched the change come about, 
and have followed its various phases. 

Politics, that used to be the all-engrossing subject in the 
life of Madame Adam, have now dropped to the second plane, 
and purely intellectual subjects engross her more. Her affec- 
tion for her beloved France, though it remains still the one 
absorbing passion of her life, is no longer expressed by the old 
wild desire to see France revenged upon her enemies. Her 
patriotism has assumed proportions that give it more earnest- 
ness, more steadfastness, and thus it makes the greater impres- 
sion on others, and carries an authority that passion, when ex- 
pressed violently, can never attain. She has obliged strangers 
to respect her patriotism, and to see her in that graver, sober 
light which alone is worthy of the great patriot that she 
has always been, of the woman who in success as well as in 
disaster has never despaired of the resources of her country, 
nor of its power to arise, stronger and more powerful than 
it was before, out of disaster and ruin, and, worse evil than any 
other, out of the intrigues of unscrupulous men who want 
to use her, in order to further their own greed or their ov/n 
gain. 

202 



Madame Juliette Adam 

With that difference Juliette Lambert in her old age has 
remained what she was in her youth, a noble, charming woman, 
kind and affectionate, with the warmest of hearts and the 
most generous character. She lives mostly in the country, 
in a dear old house, formerly a cloister in those olden times 
when a king reigned over France. L'Abbaye du Val de Gyf, 
as it is called, is one of those lovely dwellings where every- 
thing speaks of peace and rest, and of the high soul and earnest 
mind of its owner. There, among her books and her roses, 
and her dogs and her birds, she lives in quietness, and spends 
her days thinking of the past, and writing her wonderful 
reminiscences. There her friends come and see her, as often 
as she allows them to do so, there one of her best loved friends, 
the unfortunate Queen Amelie of Portugal, has often fled for 
consolation, because the closest intimacy unites the fiery 
Republican and the daughter of the Bourbons. There Madame 
Adam forgets her disillusions, and thinks only of the good 
things which life has left her. 

The last time I saw her in her beautiful home at Gyf 
we talked about old times, and all those hopes of the 
great things which we both had expected out of the Franco- 
Russian alliance. She frankly owned to me that it had not 
realised the great hopes that she had trusted it would, and 
rather bitterly remarked that "things we yearn after very 
much never turn out quite like we have expected they will 
when they come to be realised. But then," she added with 
a shade of malice, " how very seldom do we see what we wish 
for realised in general ? " 

And thus I take leave of her, after an acquaintance that 
stretches over more than a quarter of a century, the same 
loving, delightful, clever and kind woman that she has always 
been, with her serene smile, and grave, serious eyes that have 
always looked upon humanity through the windows of her 

203 



France from Behind the Veil 

soul, and never through the spectacles of envy, hatred, or 
any of those bad feelings that most human beings indulge 
in. An exception she has always stood amongst women, 
and an exception she will remain for all those who later on, 
even when she too has disappeared from this mortal scene, 
will read about her, and think what a noble, beautiful creature 
she has always proved herself to be. 



204 



CHAPTER XVIII 

A Few Literary Men 

During the many years which I spent in Paris I had numerous 
opportunities of meeting the majority of the remarkable 
literary men who abounded in France towards the end of 
last century. Since then their number has considerably 
decreased, indeed it is very much to be doubted whether 
the great thinkers, such as Taine, Renan, Guizot, or Thiers, 
have ever been replaced. 

I knew Renan intimately, and wish I could describe him 
as he deserves. To hear certain people speak of the author 
of the " Origines du Christianisme " one would think that 
he was a ferocious hater, not only of religion, but also of every- 
thing that approached it. In reality Renan was intensely 
religious. Few people have understood so fully the beauties 
of the moral preached by Christ, and few people have had 
more reverence for the sacred individuality of the Saviour 
of mankind. He tried to imitate Him in all the actions of 
his life, to be, like Him, kind and indulgent and compassionate 
for the woes of the world. From his sojourn in the seminary 
of St. Sulpice, he had kept the demeanour and the manners 
of a Catholic priest, and do what he could, that atmosphere 
clung to him. 

But he had a quality which many clericals fail to possess, 
a very clear insight into religious matters, and the faculty 
of being able to set aside what was superstition, and retaining 

205 



France from Behind the Veil 

what coiild be kept of the poetry that attaches to the teachings 
of the different churches that divide the world. He always 
sought truth, and never rested until he thought he had found 
it, but he never gave out his own ideas as perfect ones, nor 
tried to impose them upon others. His was essentiall3' an 
impartiiil and a tolerant mind. Indeed his thoughts were 
so constantly directed towards those regions where it is to be 
hoped eternal truth exists, that he did not believe it worth 
while to assume an intolerance which I do not think he could 
ever have felt, no matter in what circumstances nor under what 
provocation. I have never met a man more indifferent to 
criticisms directed against his person or his works, and I 
remember once when a very bitter article concerning his book, 
" La Vie de Jesus," had been brought to his notice, he 
merely smiled and quietly said : " Wliy do you think I must 
be angry at this ? Isn't every one entitled to have an opinion 
of his o\vn ? " 

This book, so wonderful in its simplicity, among all those 
which he had wiitten, was the one he cared for the most, 
partly because he had composed it in collaboration with his 
sister, Hemiette Renan, who had such a singular influence 
over his life, and who was as remarkable a personality as 
himself. During the journey which they had undertaken 
together in the Holy Land, they had thought about the 
book which they wanted to write. In his " Souvenirs 
d'Enfance et de Jeunesse," Renan recognises that the person 
who had had the greatest influence over his mind had been 
his sister, and he walked in the road her footsteps had 
trodden until he also saw the gieat Light after which 
they had both longed so much. In speaking about him, 
one could use with justice the words he applied to his 
sister when he wrote that " thovTgh noble lives haven't the 
need to be remembered by anyone else than God, one must 

20t 



A Few Literary Men 

nevertheless try to fix their image in the minds of the genera- 
tions that come after them." 

I am thinking about these words as I am now remembering 
all the conversations we had together, and the patience with 
which he explained to me all the various points I asked him 
to develop. He was patience personified ; he never regarded 
anything trouble when, by inconvenience to himself, be 
could be useful to others. His conversations were always 
instructive, always attractive, and always worth listening to, 
even when they strayed on to frivolous subjects, which he 
often liked to touch. It must not be supposed that Renan 
was a grave philosopher who did not care for the congenial 
or the pleasant, or the amusing things which happen in life. 
He could enjoy mirth like, and with the frankness of, a child. 

His works have been discussed more perhaps than those 
of most writers of his time, and though they have left a deep 
impress upon the minds of serious people, no one who hats read 
them can say that their influence has been anything else but 
to good. The image that he has drawn for us of the person 
of Christ is so pure, so noble, so entirely religious, that 
even those who object to the way in which he has 
presented it cannot but be attracted by the image that his 
pen has evoked. 

However strange it may seem to say so, Renan himself 
was more surprised than anyone else to find he had written 
a work which evoked so many criticisms. He had been so 
entirely absorbed by his subject that he had never given a 
thought to anything else but the picture of the Redeemer, 
such as it had presented itself to him, in the spot which had 
seen Him work and die. He had never intended publishing 
a book of controversy, and in presence of the storm which 
it provoked he was even more astounded than sorry. It 
was not in his nature to be angry, and regret was impossible 

2C7 



France from Behind the Veil 

for a soul like his, which only performed what it thought 
and firmly believed to be right. 

Contrary to the feeling some express about him, Renan 
had never indulged in atheistic opinions, and he strongly con- 
demned and opposed those who supported them. His belief 
and faith in a Supreme Being were as firm as they were sincere, 
and he only deplored that his convictions had not allowed him 
to remain a son of the Catholic Church, in which in his youth 
he had hoped to become a priest. Her teachings had left 
their impress upon his soul, and directed it towards the deeper 
studies in which he became absorbed. 

Renan had married a woman well worthy of him, and who 
made him a wonderful helpmate. She knew how to smooth 
all difficulties from his path, and proved well fitted for her 
difficult position as the wife of one of the greatest thinkers 
of modern times. She was an accomplished hostess. To 
the evening parties which saw their friends assembled in 
their little home in the Rue de I'Observatoire, she gave the 
impress of her own charming personality, and presided over 
the conversations with immense tact and dignity. Their 
daughter, who married a professor at the Sorbonne, M. Psichari, 
a Greek by origin, continued the traditions left to her by 
her parents, and until lately had a literary salon, which was 
well known in Paris, I do not know whether it still exists 
or not. 

Renan was extremely ugly; this has been repeated too 
often for anyone not to be aware of it. But a more attractive 
face than he possessed is not easily to be found. There was 
such kindness in his smile, in the look of his eyes, and such 
intelligence in that large head with its noble brow, that one 
could not help being struck by it, and admiring it far more 
than if it had indeed been a beautiful face. The painter 
Bonnat has made a portrait of him that is, I think, the best 

208 



A Few Literary Men 

one that has ever come from his brush. It shows Renan 
as he really was ; one has only got to look at it, and the 
original appears as we, who knew him well, saw him sitting 
in his deep arm-chair, with his head slightly bent down on 
his chest, and the expressive countenance that used to brighten 
up whenever he met a friend, or heard about some noble 
deed such as he himself would have liked to perform. It 
was impossible to know him and not to admire the man in him, 
even more, perhaps, than the great thinker or the great writer, 
because, after all, intellect or genius can be met sooner than 
real virtue or real goodness — and Renan was essentially good. 
From Renan to Taine is not a far step, and somehow it 
seems to me that the latter's name is the only one worthy 
to be pronounced immediately after that of my old friend and 
master. I have also known Taine well, met him often, and 
always been struck by his large, wide mind, so utterly devoid 
of prejudices, and at the same time so absolute in the judg- 
ments which he thought he had the right to formulate. I 
must emphasise the words, " which he thought he had the 
right," because those judgments assume the intelligence as 
well as the moral personality of Hippolyte Taine. He was an 
historian before everything else, perhaps even before he was a 
critic, though he counts among the greatest that French litera- 
ture has seen ; but his inclinations led him before everything 
else towards the study of the past, and of the causes that 
had brought about the great transformations that the world 
has witnessed, ever since society in the sense we understand 
it to-day began to exist ; and whilst trying to fathom these 
causes he slowly came to convictions, which he never would 
renounce when once he thought them justified. Nothing 
would move him to change one line in the writings which, 
after due consideration, he decided to publish, and even his 
long friendship with the Princesse Mathilde did not influence 
o 209 



France from Behind the Veil 

him in describing Napoleon in any other sense than the one 
in which he had understood that colossal figure. The story 
goes that after having read the study which he first gave 
to the Revue des Deux Monies, she sent him her card 
with " p.p.c." written on it, a hint which he took, and as is 
known everywhere, their intercourse of many years came to an 
end. 

Taine used to spend the greater part of the year at Menthon, 
in Savoy, on the borders of the Lake of Annecy, and it was 
during a visit which I paid to him there, from Aix-les-Bains 
where I was undergoing a cure, that I had with him the longest 
and perhaps the most interesting conversation in the whole 
time of our intercourse with each other. We discussed many 
subjects, and among others his great work, the " Origines 
de la France Contemporaine." He told me how he had 
begun it with the intention of stopping after the first two 
volumes devoted to the Ancien Regime, and how gradually 
the subject had taken hold of him and he had come to the 
conclusion that he must develop it, and bring it to the point 
which he considered to be the only right one for properly 
understanding the immense and terrible drama of the Revolu- 
tion. He hated anarchy, he thought it his duty to show 
it up in all its vivid horror, and he tried to write the 
story of that tragedy with the same impartiality he would 
have brought to bear on the description of it in any other 
country than his own. As he told me on that day : " C'est 
un pauvre patriotisme que celui qui s'imagine que Ton doit 
excuser les crimes de son pays, simplement par ce qu'on en 
est un citoyen (" It is a poor kind of patriotism which imagines 
that it must excuse the crimes of its own country, simply 
because one is born a citizen"). 

With this direction of mind it is not to be wondered 
that, though admired by many, Taine was merely liked by 

2IO 



A Few Literary Men 

the few. He could not be complaisant to the illusions or 
the false idols of the crowd, and he repudiated all that he 
called in his expressive language, " les exagerations d'ignorants 
qui se croient instruits " (" the exaggerations of ignoramuses 
who believe themselves learned"). He was a philosopher 
in his way, though it was entirely a personal philosophy 
which was founded on his own experience rather than on 
the teachings of those who had preceded him on the road of 
life and knowledge. Living most of his time far away from 
Paris, he was, according to the words of Balzac, one of those 
great minds " which solitude had preserved from all worldly 
meannesses." Left face to face with the magnificences of 
Nature, he had acquired some of its impassivity before the 
woes of mankind, and in his judgments of events he often 
forgot the tears and the sorrows, and the blood out of which 
they had developed. 

Renan was a soft and kind moralist, Taine was an in- 
exorable thinker, Dumas Fils was the type of the sceptical 
worldly philosopher who hastens to follow the advice of 
Figaro, that it is better to laugh at some things for fear of 
being obliged to cry over them. Anything more sparkling 
than his conversation it would be difficult to describe, anything 
more amusing than the paradoxes which he loved to develop 
has never been met with. But with it all there was also about 
that charming, delightful man a strong leaning towards the 
tendency to moralise, and to pose as a moralist. Indeed he 
might, perhaps, have become a moralist in fact, had his 
rambling, sharp mind allowed him to think about moral 
problems otherwise than in associating them with his " bons 
mots." These constitute the great attraction of his plays, 
and give to some of them that bitter flavour which, in spite 
of all the wit displayed in the dialogue, hangs about their 
whole construction. 



France from Behind the Veil 

In his sadly truthful comedy, " La Visite de Noces," the 
analysis which he makes there of the great fact, which 
especially in France has absorbed so much of public attention, 
the fact of love outside marriage, is certainly full of ingenious 
reasonings. But though it strikes the mind, it does not appeal 
to the heart of those who listen to it, because it is not with 
witty phrases that a social evil can be mended. However, 
this last fact did not disturb the equanimity of Alexandre 
Dumas. He did not pose as an apostle, and he knew very 
well that principles fall down very easily before the strength 
of passion aroused. He had no hopes of curing the evils 
of mankind, but it amused him to satirise them, and to laugh 
at them, and to talk of them, and he did perhaps more than 
any other writer of his generation to acclimatise society to 
the fact of the existence of many things, which until he made 
them popular had never been mentioned — in the society 
of ladies at least. 

Alexandre Dumas was married to a Russian, a very in- 
telligent and, in her youth, a very attractive woman, but who, 
towards the end of her life, developed slatternly habits. Those 
who called upon her unawares found her with her hair wrapped 
up in curl-papers, her face seldom washed, and in an un- 
tidy dressing-gown, the garment she most affected, I re- 
member one morning at Dieppe, where the clever dramatist 
had a villa, I found her sitting in her garden overlooking 
the sea, in a kind of white wrapper, none too fresh, and without 
any stockings on her feet. When lunch was announced Dumas 
turned to his wife and asked her whether she would not tidy 
herself up a bit, to which she replied with indifference : " Why, 
I am all right." To watch her husband shrug his shoulders 
was a sight in itself. 

Two daughters were born to M. and Mme. Dumas. The 
eldest married a banker, Maurice Lippmann, with whom she 

212 





Pkoto : H. Manuel, Pans. 

MADAME JULIETTE ADAM 



Flioto : Pierre Petit, Paris. 
ALEX. DUMAS (Pere) 





Photo: H. Manuel, Paris. 

ANATOLE FRANCE 



Photo : Gerschel, Paris. 
OCTAVE MIRBEAU 



A Few Literary Men 

could not agree, and a divorce soon followed. Colette Dumas 
was a pretty, wild kind of creature, gifted with a charm 
quite her own, and absolutely devoid of what is commonly 
called moral sense. She had never been baptised, and she 
was never brought up, but simply grew as she liked, mostly 
in her father's study, where she heard expounded the whole 
time the theories after which she tried later on to shape her 
own life. There was no harm about her, but, alas, no principles 
ever ruled her conduct, and a more lovely little animal never 
existed. The poor girl discovered later on that life was not 
the comedy she had been led to think it, and before she died 
a few years ago she must have often regretted the false educa- 
tion that she had received, and lamented the views which she 
had taken of existence, which to her youthful eyes had appeared 
in the light of one great enjoyment. 

Her sister Jeannine was quite a different character, as 
sedate as Colette was hasty, and with strong common sense 
instead of passionate cravings after the impossible. She 
was married to an ofhcer belonging to the old aristocracy, 
and she knew very well how to adapt herself to her new 
existence in the provincial town where she settled, and where, 
like all happy people, she had no history. 

At the time I am writing the description, the Goncourts 
were talked about a great deal in French literary circles. 
I have attended receptions at their house, but I never could 
share the enthusiasm that some of their writings excited 
among the general public. They were both clever, Jules the 
more so of the two, but though they showed themselves very 
hard workers, one can well question the use their work has 
proved to the development of the intellectual capacities of 
their contemporaries. It is very much to be doubted whether 
their books will survive them for any considerable time. One 
thing is certain, they were the first to start the school of 

213 



France from Behind the Veil 

self-admiration that now reigns so completely over French 
modern literature. 

Of quite a different type was the Comte de Falloux, a 
member of the Academy, and a writer of no mean talent. 
The Comte was just as well known for his political as for his 
literary activity, and he represented in the Chamber of 
Deputies, and afterwards in the Senate, the Legitimist party, 
of which he was one of the leaders, and where his opinion 
carried much weight. M. de Falloux was an Ultramontane 
of the purest water, who always looked towards Rome for his 
inspirations, and who saw nothing good outside the Pope 
and the Jesuits. He was a great favourite among a certain 
coterie of the Faubourg St. Germain, and though a great 
friend of Mgr. Dupanloup, the famous Bishop of Orleans, 
used always to quarrel with him, and thought him far too 
liberal and too leniently inclined towards compromise, his 
own stern, obstinate nature never accepting any. He was 
extremely well read, but he was not an amiable man, and 
certainly was not sympathetic. He was a man of letters 
belonging to that school of grand seigneurs of which the 
Due de Broglie and the Due d'Audiffret Pasquier were such 
brilliant examples. 

Though I shall speak later on about M. Zola when dis- 
cussing the Dreyfus case, which is so entirely associated with 
his name, yet I must also here say a few words concerning 
him. In the 'eighties — ^the period to which I am referring — 
he had already made a great name for himself as the father 
of the new Naturalistic school. Whether he had directed 
his attention that way because he really believed that 
fictional literature, such as it had been understood until 
he arrived to transform it, was based on false principles I cannot 
say. Perhaps he simply wanted to make more money in 
trying to offer to the public something that hitherto it had 

214 



A Few Literary Men 

not seen, and which was bound to interest it by its unex- 
pectedness if by nothing else. But what I can certify 
through personal knowledge of the man is that he had enough 
vanity to prefer being hissed than passed by in silence. That 
he had considerable talent no one can deny, but that he might 
have used it in a different direction is also not to be questioned. 
One effect of his style was to turn the heads of would-be 
authors, who, not having the necessary capabilities to write a 
good book, imagined that by imitating Zola, and scribbling 
plots of questionable taste, they would likewise rise to fame, 
and, what was still better, earn fortune, forgetting entirely 
that talent such as Zola possessed could allow itself a latitude 
which people with fewer capabilities were better advised not 
to attempt. 

M. Zola married a very superior and most intelligent 
woman, who was gifted with most remarkable qualities of heart 
and mind. She showed extraordinary dignity, and most 
uncommon forbearance in regard to her husband, whose 
memory to this day she tries to defend against any possible 
attack. When he died she took to her heart two children 
of which he was the father, and brought them up, and estab- 
lished them in the world with a total abnegation of her own 
personal feelings. Indeed, Madame Zola's conduct in life, 
even under the most trying circumstances, must always be 
admired. She certainly was far superior to her husband in 
regard to moral character, and she is liked and esteemed 
by all those who have had the privilege of meeting and 
knowing her. 

In thus recounting the literary men I have met with in 
Paris I find I have forgotten to mention Alphonse Daudet, 
with his leonine countenance and his black locks. And 
yet I knew him better than I did Zola, was a frequent visitor 
at his house, and a great admirer of his amiable and clever 

215 



France from Behind the Veil 

wife, who has since also made a name for herself in the world 
of letters. Daudet was an extremely capricious man, and 
one whose temper was of the same character, but his abilities 
were incontestable, and some of his books will very probably 
outlive those of Zola. When he happened to be entirely 
in good health, which unfortunately was not often the case 
in the last years of his life, Daudet was a most pleasant com- 
panion, full of conversation, and possessing the French spirit 
of " le mot pour rire." I remember he made us roar one 
afternoon by relating to us how once he had received an 
anonymous letter, in which he was asked, in case he was 
" tall, fair, with blue eyes, and wore a pink tie," to come 
to a rendezvous in the garden of the Tuileries. The writer 
obligingly added that unless he fulfilled these conditions 
in his personal appearance, and consented to put on a pink 
tie, he had better not waste his time by coming, as the lady 
who wanted to make his acquaintance was determined to 
do so only if he fulfilled the ideal she had nursed for long 
years. It seemed that the ideal in question depended for 
a great part on the pink tie. 

Alphonse Daudet left two sons and a daughter. Leon 
Daudet, his eldest boy, has also written psychological books, 
but they evince none of his father's wit. He also has made 
himself conspicuous by his political vagaries, and his divorce 
from the granddaughter of Victor Hugo, which, owing to 
certain rather strange circumstances connected with it, caused 
considerable scandal. He is a fervent Catholic, but having, 
out of consideration to the feelings of the Hugo family, con- 
sented to be married only at the mairie, without the help of 
the Church, he had the bad taste to say publicly, when he 
married again, that his first marriage had not been legal, 
which, of course, was severely commented upon even by his 
best friends. His brother, Lucien Daudet, is a mild young 

216 



A Few Literary Men 

man, who has also literary ambitions, and whose principal 
occupation consists in attendance on the Empress Eugenie, 
whom he has attempted to describe in a little volume that 
could not have been pleasant reading for the Empress, because 
nobody gifted with common sense likes to be turned into 
a perfection and a genius rolled into one, or whilst still 
alive to be subjected to such extravagant praise. The 
youngest brother of Alphonse Daudet, Ernest Daudet, is also 
a writer, who has given his attention principally to historic 
subjects. His books are all worth reading, if a little dull, 
and he is a great favourite in the salons of the Faubourg 
St. Germain, where his monarchical opinions have won him an 
entrance. 

I wish I had more space at my disposal to mention otherwise 
than in passing Jules Claretie, the late Director of the Comedie 
Fran9aise, and the author of so many charming novels, which 
mostly can be put into everybody's hands. Many people did 
not like him, but those who knew him well have always 
felt great sympathy for him. He wrote the French language 
as no one else perhaps, with a light, pleasant, vivid style 
that at once conveyed to the reader the author's thoughts 
and his way of looking upon things. For years before his 
death in 19 14 he wrote a delightful weekly chronicle for the 
Temps, called " La vie a Paris," which will certainly be con- 
sulted later on by all who wish to learn the social history of 
Paris of the period. 



217 



CHAPTER XIX 

The i6th of May and the Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

When, after the fall of M. Thiers, the Due de Magenta was 
elected second President of the Third Republic, it was gener- 
ally understood, as I have mentioned already, that he would 
only be the representative of a transitional government, and 
that, accepting the tacit conditions under which he had been 
appointed, he would contribute all the weight of his authority 
to secure the return of France to the flag of the old Monarchy. 

But Marshal MacMahon, when he became Head of 
the State, did not show the sUghtest disposition to enter 
into that scheme. Not only did he disappoint the party 
which had voted for him, because it had believed that he would 
be an instrument in its hands, but he showed strong sym- 
pathies for the Left side of that Assembly which had over- 
thrown the previous President more out of pique than any- 
thing else. He took ministers holding opinions directly in 
contradiction to those which he himself had been supposed 
to profess, and when at last, in November, 1873, the Comte 
de Chambord arrived secretly at Versailles, as I have already 
related, and asked the Marshal to grant him a secret interview 
during which the political situation was to be discussed, 
the latter refused, with the hypocritical words that, though 
he was quite ready to sacrifice his life for the Prince, he could 
not do the dishonourable thing that was asked of him. 

It was that word " dishonoiirable " that upset the Comte 
de Chambord. Himself the soul of honour, he could not 

218 



Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

but be affronted by the supposition that he could have had 
the intention to ask from the Due de Magenta anything that 
could have compromised his loyalty as a man or as a soldier. 
I believe this had more than any other thing to do with the 
discouragement that made him seize the pretext of his wliite 
flag in order to renounce his pretensions to the throne of 
his ancestors. A good many years later, talking about Marshal 
MacMahon at Frohsdorf, he told me that " C'est un imbecile, 
et ce qui est pire, c'est un ambitieux, qui ne veut pas se 
I'avouer, et qui cherche a dissimuler ce sentiment sous le 
grand mot de son honneur " (" He is an imbecile, and what 
is worse, he has ambition, which he doesn't want to own, 
and tries to hide under those great words, ' his honour ' ") . 

I don't think anyone ever made a more scathing and 
more true appreciation of the character of the Marshal than 
the last descendant of the Bourbons when he voiced that 
judgment. 

Once the possibility of a monarchical restoration was put 
aside, and especially after the Prince Imperial had fallen in 
Zululand, by which the Bonapartists were reduced to impo- 
tence, it seemed as if the Republic was to be the only possible 
government in France. 

I was in Paris when the heir of the Napoleons ended his 
short existence so gloriously and so tragically, and I do not 
think that I heard one single person doubt that this Re- 
publican regime was certain to last. 

Until then great hopes had existed, even among the 
former enemies of the Empire, that the young Prince would 
be able, by one of those freaks of political life which occur 
so often in the existence of nations, to step once more upon 
the throne from which his father had been overthrown. He 
was supposed to possess courage, cleverness, great steadfast- 
ness of character, strong principles, and an ardent love for 

219 



France from Behind the Veil 

his country. That alone constituted certain guarantees for 
the future. 

The Orleanists knew very well that until the country 
had altogether forgotten the incident of their claiming back 
their confiscated millions at a moment when the country 
was smarting under the unparallelled disaster of 1870, they 
had no chance of being called back to power. The Comte de 
Chambord had made himself impossible ; the Republic was 
acceptable to but very few ; the Prince Imperial had there- 
fore the possibility if not the probability of returning to France 
as its Emperor, and this solution was wished for even by people 
who, before the war and the changes which it had brought 
about, would have recoiled with horror at the idea of being 
thought supporters of the Bonapartes. But when fate in- 
tervened, and the tragedy which was enacted in Africa put 
an end to all hopes and calculations that had been made, 
it became evident that the country must resign itself to a 
Republican government. And I am persuaded that apart 
from the ardent Monarchists, who fought for a principle 
more than for a dynasty, every reasonable person in France 
thought so. 

The whole situation rested on the fact that in the 
opinion of many, the Republic ought to be essentially Con- 
servative, whilst in that of others, who were gradually to 
increase in number, its first duty was to show itself distinctly 
Radical, and determined to follow the glorious principles,. 
as they were qualified, of 1789. 

The Due de Magenta, who found himself in a certain sense 
called upon to decide between these two currents, did not 
very well know what to do. His own leanings were dis- 
tinctly Conservative, and he was no admirer of the Radical 
programme, scarcely even of the moderate Republican one. 
Nevertheless he imagined that he could have the necessary 

220 



Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

authority to appoint ministers of moderate views. There 
were still men of great valour in their midst, like M. Buffet 
and M. Dufaure, not to speak of the Due d'Audiffret Pasquier, 
who had made a name for himself by his famous speech against 
Napoleon III. in the first National Assembly, nor of the Due 
de Broglie, to whose help the Marshal was to have recourse 
later on. There were soldiers like General Changarnier and 
General Chanzy, who had fought so valiantly whilst in command 
of that army of the Loire which had made the last effort 
to free France from the victorious Prussians ; politicians 
like M. Ribot, whose austerity and loyalty of principles have 
never to this day been doubted. There were also, even in the 
ranks of the Left, men like Leon Say, whose presence in a 
ministry was in itself a guarantee that it would never yield 
to the demands of the extreme Socialists, or like Gambetta, 
who, whatever can be said against him, was a great patriot, 
incapable of imperilling the existence of his country by an 
alliance with anarchism. Any man blessed with the slightest 
common sense, and possessed of frankness in his dealings 
with his colleagues, which unfortunately for him Marshal 
MacMahon never showed, might have consolidated the Re- 
public by making use of these various elements. He was 
unable to do so, however, and went on from blunder to blunder, 
from concession to concession, reminding one of no one so 
much as Louis XVI., who also accepted everything and 
reconciled himself to nothing. 

When the vote of the Chamber had made Jules Simon 
President of the Cabinet, Marshal MacMahon might easily 
have found in him an ally and a supporter in his wish to 
establish the Republic upon bases which would have strength- 
ened the position of France in the eyes of Europe. 

Jules Simon was a man of high principles, unsullied honour, 
a thinker, a writer, a philosopher, of austere life and strong 

221 



France from Behind the Veil 

convictions — one who was not guilty of meanness nor permitted 
himself anything base. He was a staunch Republican, a 
sincere Liberal, a true follower of whatever was good and 
great in the Revolution of 1789 ; he abhorred excesses and 
extravagances, no matter in what shape or under what colours 
they presented themselves. 

When he became Prime Minister he tried earnestly 
and sincerely, as his duty, to convert the President of 
the Republic to his views. These he was convinced would 
conciliate the different parties that divided the Chamber 
of Deputies, as well as the Senate, and if he had found the 
help he sought from the Head of the State, it is probable that 
the whole tide of events in France would have taken a different 
turn. But that help failed him, and after having on the 15th 
of May parted from Marshal MacMahon on the best of terms, 
and received from him the assurance that he would do his 
best to co-operate with him in the direction which he wanted 
to give to the government of the country, Jules Simon was 
startled by receiving the next morning the famous letter from 
the President of the Republic, refusing to lend himself to 
his plans. He replied by handing in his resignation. 

It is to the honour of Jules Simon that whenever he dis- 
cussed the event in later years he always refused to accuse 
the Due de Magenta of duplicity, as many in his place would 
have done. When the electoral campaign began, he, of course, 
took an important part in it, but even then his attitude in 
regard to the Marshal was most correct, and he never allowed 
himself to say a word that might have been construed in 
the light of personal animosity. He was a real philosopher, 
and a political man to whom no suspicion had ever been 
attached. In France such are rare, and the example he 
gave must not be forgotten. 

The Marshal called to his help men belonging to the 

222 



Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

Extreme Right, such as the Due de Broglie and M. de Fourtoul. 
He could hardly have done anything else, because it is not 
likely that even a moderate Republican would have cared 
to risk the unpopularity that was bound to follow all those 
who had taken part in this mad venture. They accepted 
ofhce only because they imagined that by dissolving the 
Chambers the elections might give them a majority which 
would have called back the Orleans to the throne and restored 
the Monarchy. 

People who knew the Due de Broglie well affirm that he 
put the condition quite clearly to the Due de Magenta, and 
told him that he would enter the ministry only if he were 
given a free hand as regards the future in case the country 
supported him by sending his followers to represent it in 
the new Chamber. 

Whether this is true or not I have not had the means of 
discovering, but long after the death of Marshal MacMahon, 
his widow one day allowed a word to escape her which might 
have been taken as a tacit acknowledgment of the fact. She 
was conversing with a friend about the events that had accom- 
panied and followed the coup d'etat of the i6th of May, 
and replying to a remark that friend made to the effect that 
very probably had it succeeded the Due de Magenta would 
have remained President of the Republic until his death, 
she exclaimed : "Oh no, my dear, the i6th of May, even if 
it had been successful, would not have kept us at the Elysee." 

Had MacMahon possessed a scrap of dignity he would 
have resigned after the country had pronounced itself against 
him, and the obstinacy with which he clung to his place 
after his defeat is one of the most extraordinary happenings 
in the history of modern France. I have often wondered, 
and have not been the only one to do so, what he had hoped to 
gain by staying discredited and despised at a post which 

223 



France from Behind the Veil 

could hardly have been a bed of roses. Duty had nothing 
to do with it. It might have been his duty to listen to Jules 
Simon, at least his constitutional duty ; it certainly was not 
to his advantage that after having ignominiously failed in 
carrying through his attempt to create a Monarchical Republic, 
he remained the head of a Radical one. 

Gambetta, whose verdict was nearly always right and 
just, when he troubled to utter it seriously respecting men 
and things, once defined the Marshal, and did so perhaps 
even better than the Comte de Chambord had done. When 
asked to what motive he attributed his having remained 
at his post " envers et contre tons," he replied simply : "II 
est reste, parce qu'il n'a pas compris qu'il devait s'en aller " 
(' ' He remained because he did not understand that he ought 
to go"). 

But when the Senatorial elections took place, and sent 
to the Upper Chamber the same majority that already existed 
in the Lower Chamber, even an intelligence as obtuse as that 
of Marshal MacMahon understood that he had better leave 
to others the task of governing the Republic. He retired 
much too late for his personal dignity, and with him the last 
hopes of a Conservative Republic disappeared for ever. After 
some discussions, M. Jules Grevy was elected his successor. 
Some other names had been put forward, amongst them 
M. de Freycinet. IM. Jules Ferry was also mentioned, who 
was to go down to posterity as the author, later, of that 
famous Article 7, which was so strongly opposed by the clergy 
and all the parties in the Chamber, with the exception of the 
Radical and extreme Republican parties. He was certainly a 
statesman of broad views. Moreover he was honest and sincere, 
and his personality was higlily respected ; but he did not care 
to become an automaton as was desirable in a President of 
a constitutional Republic. On the other hand, he was so in- 

224 



Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

tensely disliked by all those whom he had contrived to wound 
by his political attitude that he was very soon eliminated 
from the list. As for M. de Freycinet, a clever, quiet, resolute 
individual, his opponents dreaded his great abilities, and 
perhaps also the subtlety of his reasonings. He had just enough 
friends to praise and to propose him, but not a sufficient 
number to ensure his election. After a few hours' discussion 
the general choice fell on M. Jules Grevy as Chief Magistrate 
of France. 

M. Grevy was an advocate of Besangon, who had signally 
distinguished himself by more or less violent attacks against 
the Empire. He was not a brilliant man, but one gifted with 
strong common sense, an orator of no mean value, but whose 
eloquence was cold and quiet, like his whole character. He 
disdained to appeal to the passions of the crowd. He had 
the reputation of being an honest man in the full sense of the 
word, one who would never have consented to any indelicacy, 
and who represented the perfect type of the French bourgeois 
of the time of Louis Philippe, when the lust for luxury and 
the hunt after notoriety had not yet invaded public life. 

When the first National Assembly gathered together at 
Bordeaux after the war, he was unanimously elected Presi- 
dent, and in the delicate functions of that position he showed 
great dignity, singular impartiality, and firmness combined 
with extreme politeness. His task was excessively difficult, 
and no one did anything to lighten it, so that, after an 
incident of a personal nature by which he thought himself 
wounded, he sent in his resignation. It was accepted with 
alacrity by the Right, which feared that he would be an 
obstacle to its plans and intentions, and which, dreaming 
already of the fall of M. Thiers, was desirous of having a 
President after its own heart, which it found in M. Buffet, 
the irreconcilable enemy of Grevy. 

P 225 



France from Behind the Veil 

But when Marshal MacMahon had at last made up his 
mind to retire, and when the various candidates had been 
eliminated for one reason or another, the name of M. Jules 
Grevy immediately met with sympathy, and he was elected 
by common consent. He made a good chief of a Democratic 
State — dignified, calm, gifted with tact, and animated by 
the most sincere desire to govern according to the wishes 
of the majority that had elected him. He brought with him 
to the Elysee the manners of the bourgeoisie to which he 
belonged, proved hostile to everything that savoured of 
ostentation and luxury, and went on living the same life he 
had led at Besangon, when, as a young advocate, he had 
had to fight his way in the world. Madame Grevy was also 
an excellent woman, a good mother and an exemplary wife, 
who mended her husband's socks and never attempted to 
meddle in matters that did not concern her. Under her 
rule festivities were but rare at the Elysee, but charity was 
practised on a large scale. M. Grevy did not show himself the 
nonentity he was later on represented to be, and several of 
his ministers, with whom I had an opportunity of discussing 
the President, told me that his advice always proved most 
valuable to them, and that, whenever serious matters came 
to the front, his strong common sense and clear judgment 
generally found the best way to put an end to the difficulties 
which had arisen. He was not a genius, but he had states- 
manlike views, and these, more than once, proved useful 
to France. 

Unfortunately, M. Grevy survived himself, politically 
speaking. Had he retired at the end of his first seven years 
he would have been remembered with gratitude by his country 
as well as by his family. But several untoward events and 
scandals gave a sad celebrity to his term of office. 

One was the affair of the Union Generale; the first 

226 



Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

and the last attempt of French aristocracy to meddle with 
finance. Since that time it has grown wiser, and has had 
nothing more to do with banks, except marrying bankers' 
daughters. But under the Presidency of M. Grevy it hoped 
to make up for its defeat in the field of politics by securing 
a great triumph in the field of finance. In M. Bontoux it 
thought it had found the man capable of retrieving its fallen 
fortunes, and almost all the proudest names of France co- 
operated in the enterprise which he started, and which he 
fondly hoped would rival the power of the Rothschilds and 
of Jev/ish finance in general. For some little time everything 
went well, and the shares of the Union Generale rose out of 
all proportion. Then one fine day the end came suddenly 
and crushingly, M. Bontoux was imprisoned, and all the 
numerous enterprises of which he had been the promoter 
suffered disaster. 

Later on somehow, in other hands, the venture proved 
prosperous, and his creditors recovered something like ninety 
per cent, of their money. But at the moment that the 
catastrophe occurred half France was ruined by it, and as 
of course the Jews were accused of having brought it about, 
I think I am not much mistaken in saying that it is from that 
period that anti-Semitism began to flourish in the country, 
and that people like Drumont became popular. 

The crash of the Union Generale and the Panama scandal, 
which began to ooze out among the public, would have been 
enough to throw a shadow on the Presidency of M. Grevy, but 
the drama which closed it stamped it with a shame that he 
himself did not deserve, and which, whatever has been said 
about it by his enemies, he felt acutely. 

As everybody knows, Mademoiselle Grevy, the President's 
only daughter, had married Daniel Wilson, the son of a very 
rich sugar refiner, who in the merry days of the Empire had 



France from Behind the Veil 

formed part of that jeunesse doree, whom the Cafe Anglais 
still remembers. He had grown bald, and he had become 
poorer since those halcyon days ; but he had a sister, Madame 
Pelouze, the owner of the lovely chateau of Chenonceaux, in 
the valley of the Loire, who had considerable influence over 
him, and who imagined that by arranging a marriage between 
him and the daughter of the President of the Republic he 
would retrieve his fallen fortunes. Daniel Wilson listened 
to her, and soon found himself installed at the Elysee. 

Once there, the rest was easy for a man of his intelligence, 
and this is a quality that his most bitter adversaries concede 
to him. He soon acquired unbounded influence on the mind 
of his father-in-law, and M. Grevy, grown old and perhaps 
even lazy, was very glad to find in his son-in-law a person 
capable of helping him and of bringing to his notice many 
things which he might perhaps have otherwise forgotten, as 
well as to give him good advice when he needed it. Very 
soon M. Wilson became a political power, and this brought 
him many friends, even more flatterers, and a host of demands. 
At first he was careful, then he grew bolder, at last he quite 
forgot that he was at the mercy of the least indiscretion, 
and finally, when it became known that he had accepted 
monetary considerations in return for promotions in the 
Order of the Legion of Honour, the scandal became so immense 
tliat poor M. Grevy, who had known nothing at all about it, 
was peremptorily asked to resign his functions as Head of 
the State. 

To those who read of this now, the whole affair cannot 
but appear strange, especially if they have followed the course 
of events in France since that day, and they can but wonder 
at the sensitiveness of public feeling then. To-day, when 
almost everything from the great Cross of the Legion of Honour 
down to a modest bureau de tabac is to be had for money 

228 



Fall of Marshal MacMahon 

in France — and quite recently rumour spreads to the other 
side of the channel — one can only grieve for poor M. Grevy 
that he had been born too soon, and had not become President 
of the Republic some fifteen years later. 

In the scandal that accompanied his fall the real services 
which he had rendered to the State, and his sincere attempts 
to restrain the great development of Radicalism in the country, 
were quite forgotten. He had been weak in many things, 
blind in some others, but he had always been honest, even 
when his son-in-law was doing questionable things in his 
name. And certainly at the time of the Schnaebele incident 
it had only been by his intervention and his wisdom that 
a war with Germany had been avoided. He had, in that 
dangerous moment, shown both dignity and firmness, and 
succeeded in settling with honour difficulties which but for 
him might have led to the most serious consequences. France, 
when thinking of him or talking about him, should never 
forget this. 

When he resigned, there was again a question raised as 
to who should be asked to become his successor, and the name 
of Jules Ferry was once more put forward. But Jules Ferry 
was considered as far too Conservative by the Paris Municipal 
Council, which sent delegates to the National Assembly to 
warn it that, should he be chosen, the population of the 
faubourgs would come down to Versailles in order to signify 
its veto. To tell the truth. Ferry's energy was feared, and it 
was dreaded that he would prove himself a master rather than 
a President. M. de Freycinet was out of the question, when 
suddenly M. Carnot's candidature was put forward by M. 
Clemenceau, who was beginning already to assume the leader- 
ship of the Radical party, and to make himself respected 
by all the others. 

At that moment Sadi Carnot was Minister of Finance. 

229 



France from Behind the Veil 

He had quite recently been the object of an o\'ation in the 
Chamber of Depnties when he had refused to exonerate M. 
Wilson from the payment of certiiin taxes which he owed 
to the State, and from which he had attempted to escape, 
thanks to his relationship with President GrtH'y. Carnot 
was the personification of that caste which is called in all 
the old memoii-s of the eighteenth century, " les grands bour- 
geois de Paris." His past career had been irreproachable, 
he had perhaps few friends, not being at all pliant, but he 
had a remarkable absence of enemies. His personal appear- 
ance was grave and solemn, not to say dull ; he did not speak 
much, and his manners were always cold and distant. He 
made an excellent President, and had he not come to such 
a tragic end. it is probable that no one would ever have given 
him a thought after he had left office. 

When he was murdered the Radical party had already 
secured a very large majority in the Chamber as well as in 
the Senate, and all thoughts as to the possibility of a Republic 
governed according to Conservative principles had long ago 
vanished. For a few brief months his successor, Casimir 
Perier, tried to hght against the tide of anarchism which 
was slowly rising, but after him no one attempted it, and 
the Republic fell entirely into the hands of M. Clemenceau 
and his friends. 



230 



CHAPTER XX 

Leon Gambetta 

Without being an intimate friend of Leon Gambetta, I 
used nevertheless to see him very often, and there existed 
between us one of those close relationships which sometimes 
draw together people whose opinions are totally different. 
I had first met him before the war, when he had not reached 
the fame which ultimately became his. I admired him more 
than I liked him, and to tell the truth he never was fully 
in sympathy with me, but it was impossible to see him often 
and not to be struck by his immense intelligence, and especially 
by the extraordinary^ povv^ers of assimilation which distin- 
guished him. 

I have already mentioned that at the beginning of his 
political career he had little idea of social requirements, 
yet as soon as he found out his mistake he speedily made 
it his aim to acquire knowledge of the customs and manners 
current in the higher classes of society, and to make a special 
study of its code of etiquette. He realised quite well that 
sometimes trivial details bring about tremendous results, 
and that if a man wants to lead his country he must not 
begin by giving the public occasion to ridicule him. Besides, 
there lay at the bottom of the character of this extraordinary 
man a thirst for luxury, for pov/er, for riches, for all the good 
things of the world, which alone would have been sufficient 
to make him study the refinements without which they become 
useless. Gambetta was an epicure in the fullest sense of that 

231 



France from Behind the Veil 

word, and the apparent carelessness which he had affected 
in outward appearance when he entered pohtical hfe pro- 
ceeded more from the desire to attract notice to himself 
than from anything else. 

He wanted to impose his personality upon others, and 
not knowing how to do so, he tried to attain it by an apparent 
indifference to those outward things that rule the actions of 
ordinary men. 

When once he was thrown into contact with good society, 
and especially after he had fallen under the influence of Madame 
Edmond Adam, or Juliette Adam as earlier I referred to her, 
his views of life changed considerably. He very soon became 
more refined in his tastes and habits, the equal in social deport- 
ment of those men and women whose judgments and opinions 
he had affected to despise in the days when he was a street 
orator who frequented the Cafe Procope and other meeting- 
places of the young Radical party who made it its business 
to attack the Empire at every opportunity. 

The war sobered him, and his short sojourn in the re- 
sponsible position of member of a government, such as it 
was, considerably changed his ideas. He at once perceived 
that it was easier to criticise men in power than to do their 
work. He was a great patriot in the sense that he put his 
country before anything else in the world, and that he was 
ready to sacrifice all that he held dear for its welfare, but 
he was no chauvinist, though so often accused of fomenting 
chauvinism in France. He had a very clear comprehension 
of every political situation, and also of the different ways 
in which it could be explained to the crowd, who generally 
see only the externals of questions without ever going into 
their details. 

He Vv^anted his country to regain its former power and 
fame, and he knew that this would be difficult if the idea 

232 



Leon Gambetta 

of the humiliation it had endured was always put before 
its eyes, and if the wounds it had received were always made 
to smart. In a certain sense he was right, in another he was 
wrong, because France might have been more quiet now, 
and more prosperous even in the material sense of the word, 
if that idea of a revanche had not always been fostered, and 
had she been taught to reconcile herself to accomplished facts. 
In saying this I know that many among my readers will scream 
outright, but not being a Frenchman I may be allowed to 
express my opinion, that it would be to the advantage of 
a country for which I have alv/ays had the greatest sympathy 
if she began thinking more about herself and less about 
another war with Germany. 

Gambetta exercised an unbounded influence on many 
people, and was the object of hatred to many others, 
but no one who met him could pass him by with indifference. 
If he had not been of a lazy disposition he might easily have 
become Prime Minister long before he did, and in this connec- 
tion I must relate a story which probably will surprise more 
than one person. Gambetta, though he led his party, and 
though he was at one moment the most powerful man in 
France, showed always some reluctance when the question 
of his forming a government was raised. I ventured one day 
• to ask him why. He replied to me that, now he understood 
the responsibility of the head of a Cabinet, and had studied 
European politics, he did not think himself up to the task, 
and also did not think that his presence in a ministry would 
be to the advantage of France, because his name had become 
synonymous with the principle of a war with Germany, for 
which he was but too v^ell aware that his country v^'as not 
prepared. " Later on," he added, " my day may come, 
but I feel that now, though I may have a great deal more 
intelligence than some of the foreign ministers who lead 

233 



France from Behind the Veil 

the destinies of other countries, I haven't their experience 
of affairs, nor their perfect knowledge of saying pretty things 
which they do not mean. This would make me appear 
inferior to them, and France must not be represented by a man 
to whom this reproach applies. France must hold her own, 
and something more, in the presence of Europe." 

I made a gesture of surprise, which he noticed. 

" You are astonished at what I tell you," he remarked, 
" but do you think me such a poor patriot to put my own 
personal advantage or ambitions before her welfare ? This 
would be very miserable indeed, and I know of no meaner 
thing than accepting office when one is aware that it is not 
for the good of one's fatherland. I know very well what 
is thought about me in Europe, and especially in Germany, 
and I do not wish to give the latter country the slightest excuse 
to say that she has been provoked, or that we are following 
a policy of aggression. Such policy is unworthy of a great 
nation, and we are a great nation, in spite of our reverses, 
and we must remain one, though some people would like 
us to come down from that height. We must work to con- 
solidate our position, to become powerful enough and strong 
enough to be able to strike when the day comes, not only 
with the chance, but with the certitude, of success. What is 
the good of wasting one's time in petty strifes or petty re- 
criminations ? Yes, I think about revenge, I think of nothing 
else, but I should be ashamed to be thought eager for it 
at once, and at any price ; above all I would not like to risk 
losing it by such a miserable circumstance as my becoming 
head of the government at a time when the hour for it had 
not yet struck." 

I relate this conversation in its entirety as it shows the 
real patriotism which animated Gambetta, as well as his 
great foresight and intuition in politics in general. Very 

234 



Leon Gambetta 

few statesmen would have viewed a situation with such 
entire self-abnegation. In France especially, where the thirst 
after power and official positions was so great, he con- 
stituted a solitary and noble exception. I think that the 
happiest time in Gambetta's life was when he was President 
of the Chamber, and inhabited the Palais Bourbon. There 
he felt in his element, and also at the height, not of his am- 
bitions, but of his wishes — a totally different matter. In 
the old home of the Due de Morny he did not consider himself 
inferior to that clever councillor of Napoleon III., and reflected 
with some satisfaction on the circumstances that had brought 
him there, and placed him in the chair occupied with such 
authority by the illegitimate son of Queen Hortense. In 
his new position also he could give way to the luxurious 
tastes which he had always nursed and only appeared to 
scorn, because he had not been able to believe he would ever 
be in a position to gratify them. 

Leon Gambetta also felt that in the capacity of leader 
of the representatives of the nation he \'\ ould have more 
opportunities of learning the real wants of that nation, and 
thus, when the day came that he could do so, would be able 
to work for its welfare with better chances of success than 
he had had hitherto. His rare tact served him well, and his 
knowledge of mankind, something quite different from know- 
ledge of the world, made him avoid many of the mistakes 
another placed in his position would inevitably have fallen 
victim to. He made an excellent President of the Chamber, 
just as he made an admirable host in the Palais Bourbon, 
where he displayed his epicurean tastes in a way that drew 
upon him the censure of the newspapers, which tried to 
ridicule the former Socialist leader, whose first care had been 
to get as his cook the most famous chef in Paris. 

Madame Adam used sometimes to smile at the change 

235 



France from Behind the Veil 

which her inthience, more than anything else, had brought 
about in Gambetta. But when he became President of the 
Chamber their intimacy slackened, for a very short time 
it is true, but slackened all the same. Gambetta, it must 
be owned, was very sensible to feminine charms and feminine 
blandishments. Strange as it may seem when one takes into 
consideration his extreme ugliness, the fact that he had but 
one eye, and was enormously fat, he yet exercised a great 
fascination on women in general, and he liked to use it, and 
to spend part of his spare time in the society of the fair ladies 
who worshipped at his shrine. This partly was the cause of 
his death. But about this we shall speak later on. 

When at last circumstances arose \\'hich obliged Gambetta 
to accept the task of forming a Cabinet, it was with the utmost 
reluctance, in spite of all that has been said concerning this 
subject, that he undertook it. He had no faith in the 
possibility of being a long time at the head of affairs, and 
as he told one of his friends : " Why take such trouble 
when one is assured beforehand it is for nothing ? " Never- 
theless he started earnestly to work to give to the government 
the direction he thought the best for the interests of the 
country. But the composition of the Chambers A\'as not con- 
genial to him ; he felt himself far superior to all those men 
upon the vote of whom his fate depended, and this made him 
impatient as to the control which they pretended to exercise 
over him. He despised them, if the truth must be said, and 
involuntarily he allowed this feeling to appear in the manner 
in which he handled them, a fact that had much to do with 
the short time he remained in power. 

His advent as Prime Minister had excited considerable 
sensation abroad ; even in France it ^^■as the signal for the 
retirement from public life of many people who felt that they 
could not remain in office under such a thoroughly Radical 

236 



Leon Gambetta 

government as the one he was supposed to lead. Among those 
who resigned was the Comte de St, Vallier, at that time French 
Ambassador in Berlin. 

When his resignation v/as accepted he thought himself 
obliged, nevertheless, to call on the Prime Minister when 
he returned to Paris, in order to express to him his regrets 
that the opinions \'/hich he held prevented him from 
working harmoniously with him. Gambetta received him with 
great affability and courteousness, and at once said : " You 
are wrong to go away, I shall not remain for long Vvhere 
I am nov/, and you would have rendered a greater service 
to France by remaining at your post than by a retreat which, 
as you will see, will prove to have been useless. Je ne suis qu'un 
bouche-trou (' I am only a stop-gap *) , and very probably the 
President of the Republic in entrusting to me the task of 
forming a government wanted to prove to France hov/ im- 
possible it is for a Radical ministry ever to maintain itself. 
The sad part of this is that, though I am a Republican, I 
have no Radical sympathies. I assure you that this is the 
fact, and that you would have found me far more inclined to 
sympathise with your opinions than with those of the people 
who are supposed to be my follov/ers. The great mistake 
that v/e are constantly making in France is to mix up opinions 
v.ith the way in v/hich the country must be governed. We 
ought to have neither a Conservative, nor a Radical, nor even 
a Republican govermnent ; we ought to have a French one. 
This would be quite enough. I am sorry you have resigned ; 
very sorry, indeed." 

But Gambetta did not convince M. de St. Vallier, and 
he insisted on retiring from the diplomatic service, a fact 
which I have reasons to believe he regretted later on. 

The great dream of Gambetta was to establish a modus 
Vivendi and a kind of understanding with Germany. He 

237 



France from Behind the Veil 

knew very well how useless it is in life to go back on things 
which are already accomplished, and to cry over spilt milk. 
And he did not care for France to go on living in the state 
of qui vive which had been hers ever since the disasters which 
had accompanied the war of 1870. He knew also that he 
had far greater chances to take into his hands the reins of 
government, and to keep them if once he had succeeded 
in doing away with this fear of a German aggression, which 
haunted the public mind. He was no partisan of compulsory 
service, and did not approve of too great military expenses, 
entered into by fear of an imaginary danger. That it was 
imaginary he was convinced, because he knew very well that 
Germany was in the same position in which Napoleon IH. 
had found himself: that of risking the loss of everything 
and gaining nothing from a new campaign. But this convic- 
tion which was his alone he could not persuade others to 
share, and for this reason he tried to arrange an interview 
between himself and Prince von Bismarck. 

A great deal has been written about this episode, and 
several of Gambetta's friends have done their best to try to 
induce the public to forget it. I don't know why they believed 
that it was not to his honour. Nor why, either, Gambetta 
could not have met the German Chancellor when other 
French political men had done so without anyone saying a 
single word against it. By every sensible person the idea 
of this interview could only have been hailed with pleasure. 
Two great minds like those could not but have found together 
the solution of many difficulties which divided the two nations, 
and it would have been doing the greatest injustice to Leon 
Gambetta to imagine that he would not have borne himself 
with the dignity necessary to the representative of a great 
country. 

It was Count Henckel von Donnersmarck, the husband 

238 



Leon Gambetta 

of Madame de Paiva, whose fame still lives in Paris, who was 
sounded by Gambetta as to the possibility of a meeting between 
himself and Bismarck, and he did his very best to arrange it 
in such a manner that it might not become known to the public, 
at least not until after it had actually taken place. Unfortu- 
nately outward circumstances interfered with this plan, and 
Gambetta had to forgo his intention, partly because his great 
friend Ranc told him that if he ventured on such a thing 
he would entirely lose the confidence of the Radical party. 
Whether it was this consideration or another one, the fact 
remains that he felt afraid at the last minute, in view of the 
hostility of his constituents, to incur the responsibility of a 
step which his intelligence and his intuition told him was 
the best for the interests of the France he loved so dearly. 

Much has been written, and much surmised, concerning 
the death of Gambetta. It is now pretty certain that the 
wound which he received was not its immediate cause, which 
must be looked for elsewhere, and can be attributed partly 
to his general constitution, which was considerably impaired, 
and partly to the treatment which had been applied to him. 
But upon this point it must not be forgotten that at that 
time operations were not the usual thing that they have be- 
come since, and surgical intervention was generally dreaded, 
and resorted to only as a last resource. 

As to the pistol shot, about which so many suppositions 
have been made, I think that in spite of Gambetta's own denials 
there can be hardly a matter of doubt that it was a lady 
who, in a fit of fury, had inflicted the wound that disabled 
him. It is no secret now, that Gambetta was on the point of 
marrying a lady of high social standing, the Marchioness 
Arconati-Visconti, the daughter of the Senator Peyrat, and 
the widow of a Milanese nobleman. That union was to put 
the seal to his career, and to open for him many new vistas. 

239 



France from Behind the Veil 

As the husband of a beautiful, accomplished woman of the 
world, he could in time aspire to anything and, who knows, 
become President of the Republic for life, which was his dearest 
secret wish. 

But in order to accomplish his desire, he had first to 
end a situation that did not date from yesterday, to cut 
off an intimacy of twenty years with a noble woman who had 
been his friend in the bad as well as in the good days, and 
who had given him innumerable proofs of her devotion. 
Gambetta was well aware of the difficulties which such a step 
presented, and for a long time he had not the courage to 
tackle the subject, hoping that she would hear something about 
his new plans, and herself begin the conversation on this 
delicate matter. The lady, however, kept silent, perhaps 
because she did not believe in the rumours which had reached 
her, and partly because she would not give her friend the 
opportunity he was seeking. At last Gambetta asked his 
old comrade SpuUer to see her and to try to persuade her 
to have the courage to sacrifice herself to his welfare. He 
reasoned like a man, and an ungrateful man into the bargain, 
and she refused to accept the solution which was offered 
to her, and which might have soothed the pride of a person 
more devoid of feelings of attachment for her lover of long 
years than was the case with her. She dismissed Spuller 
with scorn, and rushed to Ville d'Avray, where Gambetta 
was residing, in order to seek an interview that could only 
be a stormy one. 

It was during this interview that Gambetta was wounded. 
And those who were made aware of all the circumstances 
attending this drama of feminine jealousy, knew who it was 
that fired the fatal shot which lodged itself in the right hand 
of the French statesman. When he himself was questioned 
as to the accident, he always said that he had wounded himself 

240 



Leon Gambetta 

in trying to clean a revolver, a circumstance that was the 
more unlikely because he was seldom in possession of such a 
weapon. Moreover, to some of his friends, like Spuller and 
Paul Bert, he only remarked that he had got nothing but 
what he had deserved. 

Perhaps it was this consciousness which made him so patient 
during his illness, and also so shy of seeing anyone, even his 
friends, whilst it lasted. He used to lie quietly, with closed 
eyes, and avoid any conversations that could have touched 
upon the subject of the accident which had occurred to him. 
And when later on other symptoms made their appearance, 
he begged the people who surrounded him to say everywhere 
that these symptoms had nothing to do with his wound. 

If, in his dying moments, he was conscious, he must 
have regretted deeply his ingratitude in regard to the 
woman who had loved him with such true affection, and 
who had been tempted to an act of despair when she 
learned that she was about to be forsaken for one who 
certainly did not have for Gambetta the same passionate 
affection. It was after all the sweet lady who had for so long 
had him in her affections who watched over his deathbed, 
and who closed his eyes for ever, whilst the proud lady for 
whose sake he had been about to sacrifice her never even 
made an appearance at Ville d'Avray. She went on living 
her former life as if no tragedy had crossed it, after death 
had removed from this worldly scene the great poHtician to 
whom ambition had very nearly united her. 

And now that years have passed over this drama, 
since the removal from the scene of political France of the 
great patriot who was called Leon Gambetta, it is still very 
difficult to form a true judgment about him. He died before 
he had given the full measure of his qualities, or shown the 
real stuff he was made of. He was for too short a time in 
Q 241 



France from Behind the Veil 

a responsible position to allow us to say whether he would 
have proved as able a leader of a government as he had shown 
himself to be a powerful leader of men. The two things are 
very different, and the man who can master one is found 
sometimes to be lacking in the other. What, however, cannot 
be taken away from him is his true, earnest patriotism, the 
absence of all vanity that distinguished him, his readiness 
to sacrifice everything in his power at the shrine of his father- 
land, and his desire to serve it, according to what he considered 
to be its interests. He was fearless in his devotion, and 
worked for his country without paying any attention to the 
reproaches of the crowd. 

The man was colossal in his way, and there was nothing 
mean about him. His conceptions were as great as his soul. 
Of course he was often mistaken, like every human being, 
but he was always sincere even in his errors, and he never 
hesitated to acknowledge the latter when they were shown to 
him. 

Reared in different circumstances, and able to show his 
value otherwise than by starting on the road of revolution, 
which bordered very closely on anarchy, he might have 
become truly a great man. He had all the instincts of one — 
and all the imperfections. He was authoritative and could 
be very firm, but he tried always to be just, and avoided 
wounding others, even his adversaries, as much as it was 
possible for him to do so. He was invariably courteous, even 
in his exhibitions of rage, and essentially kind, a faithful 
friend, and a gallant enemy. Hated by those who had never 
known him, or met him personally, he contrived to fascinate 
all those who had done so ; they always went away from 
him liking the man, even when condemning the politician. 
He had a careless manner in talking about his foes, which 
was superb in its way, and though he seldom spoke about 

242 



Leon Gambetta 

himself, yet he hked to find that he was respected, feared, 
or even abused. 

The one thing he never could have reconciled himself 
to would have been to be ignored, and this indignity was 
spared him. Perhaps it was better for his memory that he 
died in the full force of his talent, and before he had reached 
the maturity of his years — perhaps it was a pity. Who 
knows ? 



243 



CHAPTER XXI 

The Adventure of General Boulanger 

One of the most curious episodes in the Hfe of the Third 
Repubhc was certainly the adventure of General Boulanger, 
with all its attendant circumstances, many of which have 
not yet seen the light of day. It illustrates the taste of the 
Frenchman for what is vulgarly called, in the argot of the 
boulevards, " le panache." 

The " Brave General," to give him the name used in the 
romances sung by Paulus, was anything but a superior being. 
I doubt if he was a strikingly intelligent one. He had neither 
the qualities nor the aptitudes which constitute a hero. He 
never understood his own power, nor realised the influence 
which, at a certain moment, he wielded over the masses ; 
he was almost without ambition ; he seldom knew what was 
required of him ; and no one was more surprised than himself 
when suddenly he found that he had become the most popular 
man in all France. 

His rise as well as his fall prove very forcibly that the 
time is past, and past for ever, when adventurers, by the 
glamour which they exercise over the crowd, can become 
masters as well as leaders. 

To those who were in Paris at that period, it is more than 
difficult to account for the sudden blossoming of this very 
inferior plant in the garden of French political life, whilst 
those who have never lived in the French capital will utterly 
fail to realise the circumstances that brought it into evidence. 

244 



Adventure of General Boulanger 

The fact is that Boulangism was the product of the private 
ambitions of a considerable number of people who, strange 
as it may seem, had nothing to do with each other, and who 
did not work together to ensure triumph. On the other hand, 
each individual directed his effort to securing for himself 
alone all the benefit arising from the movement, and in this 
General Boulanger played no part at all, though he appeared 
to be the leading spirit of the whole intrigue associated with 
his name. J 

The rise into popularity of General Boulanger took place 
some little time after the election of M. Sadi Carnot to the 
Presidency of the Republic. Carnot was a perfect type of 
the bourgeoisie of Paris of the olden days — always cool and 
methodical, severe in his principles, strong in his convictions, 
rather narrow-minded in his views ; an austere figure, the 
embodiment of honesty, self-respect personified. His very 
possessions he looked upon merely as a means for commanding 
an added respect, and throughout his life he was also a strict 
observer of the law. To these sterling qualities, however, 
he added nothing that appealed to the hearts of his country- 
men. He did not excite public enthusiasm, and scarcely 
succeeded in winning for himself public sympathies. He 
was too correct, and perhaps this extreme observance of his 
duties, whether political, social, or private, interfered with 
his popularity ; nations, as well as individuals, do not care 
to be always confronted by perfection ; they are apt to think 
it rather dull. 

Under such circumstances it is little wonder that people 
began to look beyond the President of the Republic for the 
hero which they had yearned after ever since the disasters of 
the Franco-German War had awakened in them the desire 
for revenge on the victors. Further, there were certain 
ambitious politicians who wanted to come into the limelight, 

245 



France from Behind the Veil 

and who felt that the steady determination of M. Carnot 
to govern according to strictly constitutional principles left 
no room for them or for their plans. 

The Republic, at that distant time of which I am writing, 
was not yet established so firmly in the heart of the people 
that its overthrow could not be admitted within the range of 
possibilities. Is it therefore to be wondered that those who 
longed for change should have looked around them for the 
man strong enough to lead such an adventure ? 

Boulanger, beyond looking well on his black horse, had 
but little to recommend him as a possible destroyer of the 
Republic. Still, he was a general, a position which has always 
possessed great prestige in the eyes of a certain section of 
French society. He was not slu-ewd enough to observe 
where his so-called friends were trying to lead him. As a 
consequence he allowed himself to be carried away by the 
tide that at last threw him against the rocks of Jersey, where 
his political career ended even before his life came to a sudden 
close in the little churchyard of Uxelles, near Brussels. 

There is no denying that Boulangism was engineered 
by the Royalist party on the one side, and by some enter- 
prising joiurnalists on the other. Either of these two circum- 
stances would have been enough in itself ultimately to wreck 
the cause, but at the beginning it appeared in the light of a 
movement which appealed so well to the sympathies and to 
the feelings of the whole nation that it seemed even more 
formidable from a distance than when in its midst. 

Everything conspired to transform it into a vast con- 
spiracy. When, after the fall of the Goblet ministry, in which 
he held the portfolio of the War Office, Boulanger found himself 
obliged to retire from political life, and was transferred to 
the command of an army corps at Clermont Ferrand, he could 
not reconcile himself to his exile, but used to come back 

246 



Adventure of General Boulanger 

secretly and disguised to Paris, to see Madame de Bonnemains, 
who had sacrificed for him her social position in a most select 
circle of Parisian society. Once or twice people met him 
in disguise, and recognised him, in spite of a pair of blue 
spectacles behind which he fondly hoped he would remain 
unknown. Thereupon he was immediately invested with 
mystery and romance by those who hoped to find in him a 
docile instrument to further their personal ambitions ; and 
so, in order to compel those in power to deprive him of his 
command, he was accused of conspiring against the safety 
of the RepubHc. Thus, by restoring him to private life, he 
had thrust upon him by these intriguers the opportunity to 
aspire to the supreme functions of Head of the State. 

For some time even staunch Republicans looked at him 
with dread. The next step was taken by an unknown journalist, 
who came forth suddenly as the apostle of this new messiah, 
and who conceived the idea of distributing, in several depart- 
ments, bulletins of votes bearing the name of General Boulanger. 

In a few days, therefore, France heard with amazement 
that a multitude of voters had expressed their willingness 
to send Boulanger as a deputy to the Chamber, a thing 
undreamt of but for M. George Thiebaud's adventurous 
experiment. It was M. Thiebaud who had created Bou- 
langism. He was not the only factor in fostering the move- 
ment. Another journalist, one who was well known on the 
boulevards, M. Arthur Meyer, the proprietor of the Gaulois, 
Count Dillon, and the private secretary of the Comte de 
Paris, the Marquis de Beau voir — all played a part. All three 
were men of no mean intelligence, who saw possibilities in 
this man to whom the attention of France had been attracted 
for bringing back to the throne of their ancestors those Orleans 
Princes who had failed to secure for themselves the help of 
Marshal MacMahon during the time he reigned at the Elysee. 

247 



France from Behind the Veil 

These three men were credited, in the estimation of 
those behind the scenes, with starting this extraordinary 
adventure which ended so piteously for its principal character. 
They fmthermore drew into the enterprise three other strong 
elements — Henri Rochefort, Count Albert de Mun, and the 
Duchesse d'Uzes, while through their influence also became 
champions, though in lesser degree, such men as Paul Deroulede 
and George Laguerre — an advocate of great talent, who never- 
theless is forgotten to-day — and Lucien Millevoye, who was 
given charge of one of the most important missions that those 
who played with the name of Boulanger ever entrusted to 
their adherents. 

Strange to say, each one of these persons, down to Madame 
Adam, who, almost unknown to herself, was also drawn into 
the many dark intrigues to which Boulangism gave rise, 
worked for a different aim. The Duchess d'Uzes, when asked 
to contribute financially to the success of the enterprise, was 
actuated by the secret desire to become the Egeria of the new 
hero whose star was rising in the firmament of her country's 
existence, and to rule that country under his name. Albert 
de Mun thought only of the restoration of the Monarchy. 
The Marquis de Beauvoir saw himself so firmly established 
in the confidence of the Comte de Paris that the latter would 
feel himself in honour bound to stand by him whenever one 
of those financial catastrophes, which were periodical events 
with him, should once again occur. Henri Rochefort was 
actuated by his everlasting mania of opposing every existing 
government, a mania to which he owed his success as a journalist 
and as a politician, and to which he would only have given 
way with more virulence than before had some freak of fortune 
really brought to the pinnacle Boulanger and his black horse. 
Arthur Meyer saw in the emprise the opportunity to present 
himself before the world as the statesman he firmly believed 

248 



Adventure of General Boulanger 

himself to be. Others, such as Deroulede, imagined that 
the General would conquer at the point of his sword those 
provinces which had been snatched from France ; or Laguerre, 
who hoped for a substantial financial reward, and Millevoye, 
who aspired to become the Prime Minister of a President of 
Republic after his own heart — all these men worked with 
the same tools for different purposes. They were interested 
in the cause they were supporting, but they did not believe 
in it otherwise than as a means to an end. 

Whether they would have gone on fighting under the 
same flag had that cause triumphed is another question. 
Very probably not ; but while the struggle lasted, they threw 
themselves into it with all the faculties for good or for evil 
with which nature had endowed them. And when the battle 
was lost, the disillusion was equally bitter for each of them, 

Any attempt to analyse the different phases through 
which Boulangism had to pass can only result in wonder that 
it could have maintained its popularity for such a relatively 
considerable time, and also that it aroused the serious appre- 
hensions which permeated the ranks of the Republican sup- 
porters of the government. The party had no leader except 
the irresolute General whom it had adopted. 

Madame d'Uzes, who was in possession of a considerable 
fortune through her mother, was a woman who had never 
been handsome. She was intelligent, like all the Mortemart 
family to which she belonged, ambitious, rather tyrannical 
in character, and violent in her temper when she was opposed 
or annoyed. She had been left a widow while still young, 
and enjoyed a foremost position in the Faubourg St. Germain 
owing to her great name and immense riches. One of her 
daughters had married the Due de Brissac, the second one 
was the Duchesse de Luynes. She was allied to the bluest 
blood of France, and had Court precedence been in vogue, 

249 



France from Behind the Veil 

she would have held first rank. She had nothing to gain 
and everjrthing to lose by throwing herself into the arms 
of the " Brave General," and the cause which led her to join 
the ranks of Boulangism must have been that she had imagined 
that when once the " King " had entered again into his in- 
heritance, the part she had played in that restoration would 
win for her a foremost place in his confidence, would ensure 
for her an exclusive position among the ranks of his advisers. 
Then, too, if the truth must be told, like so many women 
before her, she had also been fascinated by the personal 
charm of Boulanger, and when in his presence her heart, old 
though it was already, would beat just a little faster than 
usual. Her desire to rescue her idol from the fascinations of 
the woman who held him tied to her apron strings may also 
have had something to do with the facility with which she 
opened her purse to him as well as the doors of her house. 

Not only did she become his friend, but also the confidante 
of his ambitions ; of his deceptions ; of his ever-increasing 
bitterness at the daily insults and the calumnies which were 
showered upon him by some of his former friends who accused 
him of treason against their party ; of his doubts concerning 
the so-called virtues of the Republicans as well as of the 
Republic itself. She used to comfort him, turn his thoughts 
away from such vexatious matters, and try to win him 
over almost imperceptibly to her own political ideas. At 
last she thought she had succeeded ; but she had not 
sufficient perspicacity to judge of the true character of 
Boulanger, who had never understood anything in the way 
of politics except the old saying : " Otes toi de la, que je 
m'y mette ! " (" Get out from there in order that I may 
step into your place ! ") 

Count Albert de Mun was the only really strong man who 
had joined the ranks of the Boulangists — I mean strong in 

250 



Adventure of General Boulanger 

the sense of principles and opinions. He was the son of the 
charming Eugenie de la Forronays, one of the most delightful 
among the gallery of delightful women who adorn that so 
widely read book, the " Recit d'une Soeur," by Mrs. Augustus 
Craven. He had been singularly blessed by Providence 
with all the qualities, physical, moral, and intellectual, that 
help to make a man attractive. He had talent, moreover, 
and remarkable eloquence, and he believed in monarchy as 
a system and as a tradition to which all his past as well as 
that of his race enjoined him to remain faithful. He had 
earnestly hoped that through Boulanger the cause to which 
he had devoted his life would triumph, and he did not hesitate 
to lend to the General the prestige of his personal influence 
over his own followers. 

The Duchesse d'Uzes and the Count Albert de Mun were 
the most sincere in this most insincere adventure. It could 
add nothing to what they already possessed, and might, on 
the contrary, considerably endanger their position among 
their former friends in case of failure. All honour to them. 
They at least pursued no other aims than the gratification 
of their patriotic feelings. They may have been childish in 
heir loyalty, but there was nothing of sordidness or of petty 
feelings of revenge or of worldly triumph in its composition. 

One can hardly say the same concerning others whom 
I have already mentioned. Laguerre was of a type of con- 
doUieri met with in the pages of the history of the Italian 
republics, ready to do anything except turn back on the 
enterprise once begun, whose hands were always open 
to receive but not to give, whose ambitions were great, 
but unselfishness limited, who looked toward the enjoyments 
of the present hour and toward the gratification of the fancies 
of the moment, but never ahead ; who could not see the con- 
sequences of their actions, because they knew that these would 

251 



France from Behind the Veil 

fall on other heads than their own. A brilliant man was 
Laguerre, but a character that did not inspire confidence 
and sacrifice, one of those tools which are indispensable to 
every conspiracy. His eloquence was unrivalled, his wit 
something marvellous, his way of handling irony as a weapon, 
quite indescribable ; but though he was a politician, he was 
not a political man, and even less a statesman. 

Deroulede was a patriot, if patriotism is synonymous 
with rabidness. He could influence the masses by the torrent 
of his words. Whether he could lead them is a question 
which has remained unanswered to this day, and one may 
be excused if one entertains doubts concerning his capacities 
in that respect. He had made a name for himself by his 
anti-German feelings ; he gave it even more importance 
by his attitude in the Boulanger conspiracy ; but when he 
put his undoubted popularity at the service of the General 
he did so with the intention of working for the welfare of the 
Republic, and he would have become his most bitter foe had 
he found out that Boulanger was but the instrument of the 
Orleanist party. 

As for Millevoye, it was another thing. He was the only 
oneTamong all these passengers in the same ship who had 
something akin to political penetration, and who could under- 
stand that, when one aspires to overthrow the government 
of a country, it is necessary to secure for oneself strong 
sjnnpathies abroad in order not to find obstacles in the way 
later on. He also had patriotic feelings akin to those of 
Deroulede, but he had more shrewdness, and he it was who 
deceived himself that he could procure for General Boulanger 
the support of no less a personage than the Tsar of all the 
Russias. 

When the events which I am about to relate occurred, the 
Franco-Russian rapprochement had not yet taken place. In 

252 



Adventure of General Boulanger 

1888 the idea of a French alUance was not popular in Russia, 
and especially was its Foreign Office strongly German in its 
leanings. Nevertheless, Millevoye determined to see for him- 
self whether it would not be possible to triumph over a 
certain mistrust which existed in Russian official spheres in 
regard to the French Republic, He resolved to offer in ex- 
change a mute acquiescence to the election for life of General 
Boulanger as its President, a defensive alliance against 
Germany and Austria, as well as the support of France in 
case Russia wanted to settle to her advantage the long- 
pending question of the Straits and the Bosphorus. 

In this episode lies the only attempt at seriousness of the 
Boulanger conspiracy, and it would be a pity that it should 
remain in the darkness which hitherto has enshrouded it. 
Millevoye, in order to execute the plan that he had elaborated, 
addressed himself to Madame Adam (Juliette Lambert), and 
asked her for her advice. Juliette Lambert, who still dreamed 
of an ideal Republic, put at the service of Millevoye all her 
genius and all her heart. She gave him a letter of introduc- 
tion to a friend she had in St. Petersburg, a lady well known 
in Court circles ; and, in order to ensure the success of Millevoye, 
who had been very careful to hide from her the fact that he 
wanted to enlist the sympathies of Russia in favour of General 
Boulanger — rather, telling her that his aim was to propose, 
in the name of the Republican party, an alliance against 
Germany — she had given him certain political documents 
calculated to help him in his perilous adventure. 

Millevoye first sent to St. Petersburg his friend. Miss Maud 
Gonne, a lovely Irish girl, who since that time made herself 
widely known owing to her advocacy of Fenianism. 

Miss Maud Gonne duly arrived in Russia, and, thanks to 
her efforts and those of the Russian lady to whom I have 
already referred, Millevoye was introduced into the presence of 

253 



France from Behind the Veil 

M. Pobedonostseff, then Procurator of the Holy Synod and 
personal friend of Alexander III., who promised he would 
himself submit to the Sovereign the documents which Millevoye 
left in his charge. 

During this interview which the Russian statesman granted 
to the French politician the latter broached at once the question 
of General Boulanger, but this met with no response. The 
Tsar was far too shrewd a man to allow himself to be drawn 
into an adventure which, besides everything else, had against 
it a shade of ridicule. Millevoye was discouraged in his dreams, 
but the seeds sown by his journey were to bring fruit in quite 
an unexpected fashion much later on. 

Madame Adam was furious when she heard that Millevoye, 
instead of pleading the cause of the Republic, had tried to 
put forward that of General Boulanger. She not only turned 
her back upon him when he returned crestfallen from his 
journey, but joined the ranks of the adversaries of the pseudo 
hero, becoming one of the advisers of M. Constant in the 
campaign that the latter led with such success against Bou- 
langism and its chief leaders. 

M. Arthur Meyer, to whom already I have made a passing 
reference, is more in his proper place among journalists than 
in the ranks of political men. He is a curious figure in the 
kaleidoscopic picture that Parisian society represents, to-day, 
and though he has no aristocratic ancestry behind him, he 
is ever a welcome and much-desired guest in the select salons 
of the city. 

It can, therefore, hardly be wondered that with such 
elements the Boulangist party was doomed to failure. It was 
born by accident out of the imagination of a man who had 
nothing better to do than to try to raise tiny storms in a 
teacup. It wanted a leader, and it required soldiers to push 
it forward. Unfortunately, it attracted politicians, each of 

254 



Adventure of General Boulanger 

whom wanted to exploit it for the furtherance of his own 
cause, and was led by a man in love, who preferred the 
caresses of Madame de Bonnemains to the chances of being 
imprisoned, and who afterwards was carried to the Elysee 
by the enthusiasm of an intoxicated nation, who would have 
risen like one man to deliver him had the government tried 
to capture him. 

M. Constant, one of the ablest Prime Ministers France 
has ever had, judged the acute situation with perfect accuracy. 
General Boulanger in prison was a danger to the safety of the 
Republic ; General Boulanger in a voluntary exile ceased to 
be a subject of dread to anyone. In France, more than in 
any other country, cowardice is fatal . She turned her head away 
from her favourite of the day before when she found out that he 
had not the courage to take a single risk in order to ensure 
his future triumph. When M. Constant caused to be con- 
veyed secretly to the " Brave General " the fact that he was 
to be arrested during the night, and also managed to procure 
for himself the alliance of Madame de Bonnemains in her fear 
of losing her lover, the fate of Boulangism was sealed. De- 
prived of its chief, and of his prestige — which was far more 
important, because it was on that prestige the leaders of the 
party had reckoned far more than on the man himself — the 
forlorn cause he had embodied was bound to fall with a crash 
and bury everything under its debris. 

As for the heroine of this semi-burlesque and semi-dramatic 
adventure, she died shortly after its denouement. When 
Boulanger had fled from France at her earnest request, she 
was already doomed, and what is worse, she knew it. She 
was selfish enough to wish to keep for herself during the few 
days which were left to her on earth the love of the man she 
adored, and, seriously, who can blame her for it ? Certainly 
had Boulanger been of the material from which conspirators 

255 



France from Behind the Veil 

are made he would have sacrificed her on the altar of his future 
glory. It would have been masculine selfishness, and though 
his partisans may regret he did not display it, others may 
be forgiven if they see a redeeming feature to all the follies 
which will ever remain inseparable from the name of Boulanger, 
in the weakness which made him lose and destroy a political 
party, because he could not bear to see a woman weep. It 
is certain that he truly loved Madame de Bonnemains ; his 
suicide is proof. 



256 



CHAPTER XXII 

The Panama Scandal 

One of the saddest of the many sad scandals that have 
damaged the fair fame of the Third Republic has certainly 
been the lamentable adventure connected with the Panama 
Canal. It gave rise to such despicable intrigues, brought to 
light such demeaning cupidities, provoked such bitter ani- 
mosities, that the only wonder is that the Republic itself did 
not perish in the resulting sea of mud which was showered 
upon it as well as upon its leading men. 

It would be difficult to relate all the intricacies of this 
memorable affair, but an effort can be made to describe 
its various phases so far as they have become known. It 
is next to impossible to determine the limit where truth ends 
and fabrication begins in this inextricable embroglio, which 
arose out of the fear of some, the avarice of others, the general 
corruption everywhere. This struck home the more because 
it occurred in a country where the establishment of a Re- 
publican government had been hailed with joy by those who 
accused the Empire of having brought along with it the system 
of pots de vin, to use the typical French expression, about 
which fierce Radicals, like Ranc, for instance, spoke always 
with such disdain and contempt. 

Whatever occurred later on, the Panama enterprise was 

a perfectly honest one at its beginning. The high honour 

of Ferdinand de Lesseps would alone have been a perfect 

guarantee as to the intentions of its promoters, even if these 

R 257 



France from Behind the Veil 

had been unknown men, and such was not the case. But 
the difficulties which the whole affair presented had never 
been properly appreciated, and the brilliant success of the 
Suez Canal had blinded the eyes of those who aspired to 
emulate it under different conditions, and without the moral 
help of powerful people such as the Emperor Napoleon III., 
and the Khedive Ismail. Without this even the genius of 
Lesseps might have proved insufficient, in presence of the 
opposition which England made to the construction of the 
canal. 

Lesseps himself had grown old, and, thanks to the 
atmosphere of flattery with which he was surrounded, had 
come to believe that nothing would be impossible once he 
was associated with it. At the same time he naively acknow- 
ledged that he had not the slightest idea either of the country, 
or of the local conditions with which the builders of the new 
canal would find themselves confronted in actual working. 

The first difficulty which arose was, of course, the want 
of money. It was soon discovered that the funds first 
subscribed would prove totally insufficient. Then someone 
suggested the unfortunate idea of an appeal to the govern- 
ment for permission to organise a public lottery, the proceeds 
of which would be devoted to the construction of the canal. 

It was the issue of these so-called Panama bonds which 
was to end in a disaster quite unprecedented in the annals 
of French finance, and which struck the country to its heart, 
because its principal victims belonged to the poorer classes 
who had been fascinated by the magical name of Ferdinand 
de Lesseps. 

The lottery, however, was not so easy to organise, 
and at first met with considerable opposition in political 
circles. Lotteries were not looked upon with favour; one 
which had for object the continuation of an enterprise that 

258 



The Panama Scandal 

after all was not French, and which offered no guarantee 
that it would remain in French' hands, did not inspire sym- 
pathy, indeed, several leading politicians openly declared that 
they would do their very best to discredit the scheme. On 
the other hand money was wanted, and, what is still more 
important, courage was wanting also on the part of the directors 
of the new company to declare openly that, the result of the 
subscriptions not having answered their expectations, the 
best thing to do would be to go into voluntary liquidation. 

But by adopting such a course, one would have pro- 
claimed defeat openly, and even an honest man like Charles 
de Lesseps recoiled before such a course, well realising the 
storm of abuse which it would provoke on all sides. The 
directors therefore looked around them for means of salva- 
tion, and the issue of lottery bonds appeared as the best 
solution. 

From that moment the sad story began, and the im- 
prudent course which ended by bringing the grey hairs of the 
great Ferdinand de Lesseps to the grave in sorrow and shame 
was started. The permission of the government had to be 
obtained, either by fair means or by foul, and the necessity to 
save a work upon which so many hopes had been centred, 
and which had already cost so much money, persuaded the 
administrators of the Panama Company to listen to the 
tempting advice given to them by men like Cornelius Herz, 
or Art on, and to have recourse to the persuasion of cheques 
offered with the necessary discretion in order to win over to 
them a few rebellious consciences that hitherto had refused 
to be convinced of the necessity of issuing Panama lottery 
bonds. 

This fact alone was sad enough. Unfortunately it was 
aggravated by poHtical passion, and all the enemies of the 
government who afterwards were the first to cry out that 

259 



France from Behind the Veil 

this scandal ought to have been prevented at all costs, 
that the services rendered to his country by the man known 
everywhere by the name of the " Grand Frangais " ought 
to have guaranteed him from such vile attacks which began 
from all sides to be made against his honour, were at that 
time the most rabid in their outcries against him and against 
the light-heartedness with which he had allowed himself to 
be drawn into the adventure which was ultimately to land 
him in the criminal dock. 

The fact is that the scandal connected with the Panama 
enterprise could never have reached the proportions it attained 
had it not been for the passions of the Royalist party, which 
thought the situation might, if properly engineered, bring 
down the Republic, and allow them to instal a Monarchy 
in its place. They wanted to discredit the ministry then in 
power, to discredit .the two Legislative Chambers — to discredit 
France, in short ; but then it was of France that they thought 
the least. 

I find a proof of this assertion in the book published 
a few years ago by Arthur Meyer, in which he mentions 
the Panama affair among other things, and relates how he 
called upon Charles de Lesseps at the time the truth was 
just beginning to ooze out in public, and told him that in order 
to save his skin, he ought to transform the private scandal 
into a public demonstration of the corruption prevailing 
in French political circles. 

Charles de Lesseps, let it be said to his honour, was in- 
capable of lending himself to such a proposal, and his reply 
deserves to be quoted in its entirety, for it illustrates his native 
honesty better than a thousand panegyrics would do : 

" My conscience forbids me to reply to you," he said to 
Arthur Meyer when the latter implored him to name the 
individuals to whom the Panama company had distributed 

260 



The Panama Scandal 

cheques with a lavish hand. " Supposing even, which I deny, 
that the directors or the friends of the Panama Company, 
in order to serve its interests, had had recourse to measures 
which for my part I would always blame, do you think that 
I have the right to denounce people who have had confidence 
in my loyalty and in my discretion ? No, I shall say nothing ; 
and more than that, I have nothing to say. Our honesty 
will come out victoriously in all this campaign which has been 
started against us, and which I deplore far more for my father's 
sake than for our own. And then, I must add it, and I am 
talking now to you in perfect frankness, I care for the Republic. 
I will not go so far as to say that my Republican ideal has 
been attained at the present moment, but my wish is to spare 
to the Republic the shame of being plunged into that torrent 
of mud which you do not hesitate to throw upon her. You 
belong to a party which has particular opinions as to that 
subject ; this is your private affair whether you accept its 
methods or not, but I certainly won't help you." 

Meyer had to content himself with this proud reply, which 
is the more to be admired in that at the moment when he was 
so generously refusing to buy his own safety by denouncing 
those who had trusted to his honour, Charles de Lesseps was 
perfectly well aware that the very people whom he was trying 
to shield were themselves preparing to throw him overboard 
in order to save their already shattered reputations. When, 
however, the editor of the Gaulois pressed him to say whether 
it was true or not that Baron Jacques Reinach had been 
deputed to smooth down the timorous consciences of certain 
deputies and political men, and whether his name did not 
figure on the books of the Panama Company as the recipient 
of huge sums of money, he was obliged to own that as to this 
point, the accounts of the Panama Company being open to 
inspection by its shareholders, he could not hide the fact 

261 



France from Behind the Veil 

that the Baron's name figured upon its books as having touched 
the sum of five million francs. 

It was not much, but for a man endowed with the journalistic 
qualities of Arthur Meyer, it was enough. He forthwith 
proceeded to inquire as to what Baron Reinach had done 
with these millions which had been so liberally put at his 
disposal, and he very soon discovered that the said five 
millions had been transferred to a banking house called Thierrie, 
the owner of which had for sleeping partner the same Jacques 
Reinach. 

Once this fact was established the rest Vvas but child's 
play. Meyer very quickly secured the necessary proofs that 
a considerable number of deputies had received important 
bribes in order to vote for the issue of the Panama lottery bonds. 
He also discovered something else, and that was that this 
corruption had given birth to a huge system of blackmail, 
which had drained all the resources of the Panama Company. 
It had cruelly expiated its initial error, and had been made 
to pay for it dearly, in the literal sense of that word. A 
host of adventurers had threatened it with revelations, the 
divulging of which it could not risk, and the ball, once set 
rolling, had very soon been transformed into an avalanche 
which had carried away with it not only the money of the 
unfortunate shareholders, but also the honour and the repu- 
tation of the directors of this doomed concern. 

Meyer, after holding a consultation with his faithful 
lieutenant. Comely, of Figaro fame, did not hesitate one 
single moment as to what he had to do. He firmly believed 
that by raising the formidable scandal, the proofs of which 
in such an unexpected manner had been put within his reach, 
he would bring about the fall of the Republic, and thus pave 
the way towards the restoration of the Monarchy. Events 
showed that he was totally mistaken, because the Panama 

262 



The Panama Scandal 

scandal did not kill the Republic, it only overthrew a few 
political men and several Cabinets, and the shame of it fell more, 
perhaps, upon those who had made it public than upon the 
miserable beings who had been responsible for it without 
realising the abyss into which their light-heartedness would 
plunge them. 

The man who set the ball rolling was a deputy belonging 
to the Extreme Right, M. Jules Delahaye, member for the 
department of Maine-et-Loire. He did not hesitate to brand 
with disgrace many of his colleagues, whose hands he had 
pressed perhaps a few hours before he consigned them to 
ignominy. He threw as a challenge to France, and also 
to Europe, the names of 104 deputies whose consciences 
had not hesitated before submitting to the fascination of the 
all-powerful cheque. 

I have met M. Delahaye, and in justice to him I must say 
that he always maintained that he had never thought his 
speech would have the terrible consequences which followed 
upon it. Not in the least had he expected that that list of 
104 deputies constituted but a fraction of the people who had, 
under one pretext or another, received money from the coffers 
of the Panama Company. He had never admitted, nor even 
believed possible, that the directors of that company would 
have so entirely lost their heads as to listen to every threat, 
submit to every extortion, and pay, pay, without discrimina- 
tion and without hesitation, the enormous sums of hush 
money that had been drained out of them, half of the time 
by people who could not have harmed them in the least 
degree. 

The fact is that this whole disaster had fear for its founda- 
tion, and political intrigue to thank for the unexpected develop- 
ment that overtook it. The few officials of the Panama 
Company administering its affairs after they had consented 

263 



France from Behind the Veil 

to offer their first bribe, and had seen it accepted, immediately 
fell into the clutches of a band of blackmailers who had specu- 
lated on the impossibility of such a thing becoming public, 
and on the natural desire to prevent it getting to the knowledge 
not only of the shareholders of that unfortunate concern, 
but also of the venerable Ferdinand de Lesseps himself. 

This last event was one which his son Charles most dreaded. 
He not only loved, but also respected his father, whose grey 
hairs he would have liked to go down honoured to the grave. 
He remembered the days when with the name Ferdinand de 
Lesseps one could attempt any kind of enterprise, could 
always find people ready to back it up, and to believe in it. 
He had not yet forgotten the praise bestowed on the " Grand 
Frangais," not only in his own fatherland, but also every- 
where in Europe, and wherever he had shown himself. He 
was but too well aware of the honesty of purpose that had 
always distinguished the brave old man who was being pilloried 
by the same public that had cheered him a few months before, 
and he would have given much to be able to take upon his 
own shoulders the weight of the responsibilities that were 
crushing his father. He directed all his efforts towards that 
one aim, and he partly succeeded, because Providence turned 
out more merciful than men ; she struck old Lesseps in his 
advanced age, and threw the veil of oblivion on his once 
powerful brain. 

He never knew that he had been sentenced to imprison- 
ment, he never understood anything of the tragedy of which 
he was the miserable hero. He died in blissful unconscious- 
ness of all the evil attached to his name, of all the scandal 
that surrounded his last hours. His wife heroically defended 
him against the intrusion of any stranger who might by an 
unguarded word have aroused his suspicions. His son re- 
mained always vigilant near his arm-chair, and spoke to 

264 



The Panama Scandal 

him of hope and of future glories coming to pile themselves 
on those he had already achieved. In his affection, his filial 
devotion to his father, Charles de Lesseps was a hero, and even 
his worst detractors have bowed down before the courage 
with which he exposed himself to every reproach, and accepted 
every blame, in order to spare the old man who remained 
sitting in his arm-chair beside the fire, thinking of the successes 
of the past, and ignorant of the tragedy of the present. 

One day I met Charles de Lesseps coming out of the Palais 
de Justice in Paris with his advocate. He shook hands, 
and when I asked him how things were going he smiled sadly 
and replied that he had lost every hope of avoiding a public 
trial of the directors of the Panama Company, but he hastened 
to add, and one could see how very much relieved he felt 
at the mere idea : "I have been given the assurance that 
my father will not in any case be implicated in the prosecu- 
tion that is impending." 

He was mistaken, his father was also dragged into the 
dock, and also sentenced to several years' imprisonment. 
Unfortunately for France her political men have not yet under- 
stood the necessity which ought to impose itself upon every 
nation without anyone trying to explain it to her — the duty 
of respecting its national glories, and shielding them from 
desecration. 

One of the curious features of this lamentable Panama 
affair lies in the fact that the company's money went into 
the coffers of people who absolutely could do nothing for it, 
and who got into the habit of turning to it whenever they 
found themselves in want of ready cash for their necessities 
or even for their pleasures. It has been sweepingly asserted 
that scarcely one politician in the whole of France, no matter 
to what party he belonged, but had had recourse to it in order 
to replenish his exchequer. There were found some deputies 

265 



France from Behind the Veil 

who, whenever they required money, managed to whisper 
in the ear of one or other of the many intermediaries through 
whom the business of corruption was going on that they 
were forced to make an interpellation in the Chamber 
concerning the management of the concern, which, of 
course, might bring along unpleasant consequences or reve- 
lations as to certain facts. Such an one was sure the next 
day of finding a cheque in one of his morning letters. Or 
it was a friend of some influential personage who declared 
that he had heard that such and such a measure was under 
consideration, which might prove harmful to the develop- 
ment of the company, or put some stumbling-block or other 
in its way, and that this had to be prevented at all costs. Of 
course h& would not take anything for this, but he had to 
have recourse to a friend able to ward off the impending blow, 
and naturally that friend required to be remunerated for 
his work. Or again there was some necessary expense to be 
incurred in regard to the national defence, or to pay for some 
secret political services which the government in its incapacity 
and carelessness as to what were the real interests of France 
refused to undertake, partly also because it could not, without 
imperilling national safety, give to the Chambers the necessary 
explanations as to the reasons which rendered such expenses 
indispensable. The self-sacrifice of the company in taking 
upon itself such an outlay would entitle it to any reward 
it might care to ask in exchange, and so forth. Looking 
backward, it is difficult to understand the extreme naivete 
which presided over every aspect of this singular adventure, 
and the credulity with which serious people like Charles de 
Lesseps, and his colleagues of the board, believed and were 
intimidated by all the old women's tales that were constantly 
being brought to them. 

It would be hard to find a name among all those which 

266 



The Panama Scandal 

were prominent in political life at that par.'cular moment 
of French history which was not mixed up somehow in the 
Panama scandal. At least one President and a foreign 
Ambassador were contaminated by the general infection that 
prevailed everywhere. 

M, Rouvier, too, that strong character, was not free from 
suspicions of having looked into the coffers of the Panama 
Company. And what gives, to a certain extent, a shade of 
likelihood to the reproach which was hurled at him is the fol- 
lowing fact, which I believe has never before been made public. 

M. Rouvier had amongst his many enemies M. Flourens, 
then Minister for Foreign Affairs, an able, intelligent, and 
highly cultured man. M. Flourens did not care at all for 
M. Rouvier, in whom he saw a future rival, and recognised 
a powerful opponent. When some rumours reached his ears 
that things detrimental to the latter might be put forward 
in connection with the dealings of the Panama Company, 
he declared to a few personal friends that if such was the case 
he would not hesitate to make use of the knowledge, and to 
do his best to bring the delinquent to justice. The words 
were repeated to Rouvier, who smiled and said nothing. 
But somehow, a few days later, during a conversation with 
the same friend, to whom he had expressed his determination 
of being merciless in regard to his enemy, M. Flourens changed 
his attitude, and merely remarked that it was a great pity 
that sometimes outward circumstances, over which man had 
no control, obliged him to tolerate things that were repugnant 
to him, and to look through his fingers on facts which he could 
not disclose without harming superior interests. He then 
added that he had received a letter from M. Rouvier. When 
further questioned as to what its contents might be, he shrugged 
his shoulders, and replied : " C'est une lettre qui m'a desarme, 
et qui aurait desarme bien d'autres que moi." Months later, 

267 



France from Behind the Veil 

General Tcher^vine, head of the Tsar's secret police, received 
anonymously the original of this very letter, and never could 
discover, in spite of strenuous efforts, who had sent it to him. 
It was a short but expressive missive, and merely declared 
that in case Flourens did not hush up the rumours which 
accused M. Rouvier of having profited by the circumstances 
in which the Panama Company had found itself involved, 
he would speak publicly concerning the bribes that had been 
offered to and accepted by a certain Ambassador in Paris, 
and state their amount. 

I have reason to believe that this letter was subsequently 
put under the eyes of Alexander III. by Count Voronzov, 
at that time Minister of the Imperial Household, 

This mere fact that it became possible for the Ambassador 
of a Foreign Power to find himself mixed up in the sordid 
intrigues which gave such a special colouring to the Panama 
affair proves how wide were its ramifications, and how it 
had entwined itself around every element that constituted 
modern France. But though many had allowed themselves 
to be compromised in one way or another in this disgraceful 
story, it would never have attained the proportions to which 
it ultimately rose had not the Extreme Right party done its 
best to fan the general indignation, and to draw public atten- 
tion to every incident even of the smallest kind connected 
with it. The leaders of this party did not hesitate an instant 
before the grave responsibility of exhibiting their national 
disgrace in the presence of an attentive and disgusted Europe, 
so great was their desire of ruining their opponents and over- 
throwing the Republic. But in the end the Panama scandal 
brought more disgrace to the people who had done their 
best to expose it than to those who had been its immediate 
cause. 

I was talking about it some years later with a friend of 

268 



The Panama Scandal 

mine, a Frenchman of remarkable acuteness and singular clear- 
ness of judgment, who had been in Paris during the whole 
time the affair lasted, and had followed it very carefully, 
though not a politician himself. I asked him what impression 
it had really produced upon the saner elements of the French 
nation, who had looked upon it from the distance. 

" It has consolidated the Republic," was his prompt reply. 

" How is that possible ? " I inquired. 

" It is easy enough to understand," he explained to me. 
" Popular sympathy generally goes to the victims of a cause 
rather than to those who have brought them to the scaffold, 
be it that of public opinion or any other. In this case it was 
the Republic which happened to be the victim, and the so-called 
Monarchist or Right party who were the denouncers. They 
both benefited in their respective positions, but the people, 
who generally judge of things according to their own standards, 
asked themselves what was the object that was sought by 
the disclosures. 

" Corruption has existed everywhere and always. We 
find it written upon almost every page of the world's 
history, and it is nothing new to see politicians allowing 
themselves to be influenced by the golden calf. Why, even 
Moses's priests bent their knee before it in the desert. But 
the fact that they have done so does not mean that the whole 
nation to which they belong has followed them in their errors. 

(" The great mistake in this Panama affair has been that 
we have tried to make France and the Republic responsible. 
It is but seldom that a government is corrupt, and it is not 
guilty of the faults of those who lead it. A government 
is a principle ; men, even though ministers, are apt to fall 
and to commit reprovable and even criminal acts. But why 
accuse a regime of the actions of a few among those who 
represent it, why especially shut one's eyes to the fact that 

269 



France from Behind the Veil 

this Panama comedy or drama, call it what you like, w'as 
nothing else but one of the innumerable political intrigues 
of this or that piirty against the existing order of things? 
We have often discussed Boulangism ; well, the Panama 
scandal N^'as simply another Boulangist conspiracy under a 
different name. It may have disgraced some individuals, 
it has not taken an\i:liing away from the grandeur of France 
or from the merits, such as they are, of the Republic. Believe 
me, my friend, it is not by singing the ballad of Madame Angot 
that a King will re-establish himself at the Elysee. In ordei 
to do this, something more than a ' collet noir ' and a ' pemique 
blonde ' is needed. A man is required, and so far I have 
neither met nor seen him."' 



270 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Two Presidents 

From a constitutionally Republican point of view, M. Sadi 
Camot, about whom already I have said a few words, made 
an admirable Head of the State — honest, dignified, strictly 
observant of his duties ; of unfailing tact, and with neither 
slur nor blemish either in his political or in his private life. 
He knew how to hold himself in public, was moreover a fair 
speaker and a very well-read man. But he had nothing about 
him capable of provoking enthusiasm among the masses. 
His cold attitude, indeed, which drew on him the nickname 
of " the President with a wooden head," did not appeal to 
the nation. He was generally respected and esteemed, 
he was even liked, but he never became popular, and the 
impression he produced on outsiders, and those who only saw 
him performing his functions, otherwise never being brought 
into contact with him, can be summed up in the remark 
made by a little schoolgirl who, on one of his provincial 
tournees, had presented him with a bouquet of flowers, and 
whom he had kissed : " II ressemble a la poupee de cire du 
Musee Grevin, que Ton m'a montr^e a Paris, seulement il 
est moins joli " (" He is like the wax doll of the Grevin Museum 
I was taken to see in Paris, only he is not so handsome ") 

In spite of this drawback M. Camot would very probably 
have been re-elected had his career not been cut short by 
the knife of Caserio. By a strange irony of fate, this Re- 
publican, whose ancestors had helped to overthrow royalty 

271 



France from Behind the Veil 

in France, died the death of a King. The odiousness of this 
crime is still remembered. It was a crime for which even the 
most rabid anarchists could not find excuse. With the 
murder of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, it remains one 
of the most inexplicable crimes of modern times, and even 
political hatreds cannot justify it. M. Carnot was univers- 
ally regretted, even by those who did not sympathise with 
him. 

His sudden death left the field open for a race to the 
Presidential chair, which probably would not have been so 
fierce had the election of the Head of the State taken place 
under normal conditions, or had he even succumbed to illness 
or natural causes. No one had any thought of the possibility 
of a Presidential election, and neither Radical, nor Republican, 
nor the Monarchist parties had a candidate ready to step into 
the place left so suddenly vacant. When the Congress 
assembled at Versailles no one had the least idea who, among 
the eligible politicians of the moment, held most chances 
to succeed the murdered President, and the election of M. 
Casimir Perier was due, perhaps, more to the lack of any 
suitable competitors than to his own merits. 

M. Casimir Perier was a remarkable man in his way. He 
came from a good bourgeois stock, such as had played an 
important part in political life at the beginning of the great 
revolution of 1789. It was in the castle of his grandfather, 
Vizille, near Grenoble, that the first revolutionary assembly 
of provincial states had taken place. Later on, his grandfather 
had been head of the Cabinet under Louis Philippe, and for 
more than a century the Periers had been conspicuous in France. 
Casimir, moreover, was extremely rich, which fact gave him 
an independence such as very few political men of his genera- 
tion could boast. He had been born and bred in a most 
refined atmosphere, and always moved in the very best 

272 



Two Presidents 

society, so that he found himself at his ease when he entered 
the Elysee. 

His wife also was a most distinguished woman, who 
bore herself like a queen, and who had dispensed not only 
a semi-regal hospitality in her own house, long before she 
was called upon to continue doing so as the first lady in the 
land, but who, all her life, had also understood the duties 
towards the disinherited of this earth which a great fortune 
carries along with it. She was universally respected on 
account of her private virtues and blameless life, and she 
brought to the Elysee an atmosphere of elegance and refine- 
ment greater even than existed during the days when the 
Duchesse de Magenta had presided over its destinies. 

The advent of the Casimir Periers did away with the 
reputation for meanness and dullness that had clung to the 
receptions of the Head of the State ever since the days of 
M. Grevy and his estimable but commonplace wife. Once 
more people belonging to the upper classes returned to the 
Presidency. M. and Mme. Casimir Perier visited a great deal, 
accepted invitations to Embassies and to the houses of 
members of the Cabinet ; they received frequently too, and 
made themselves extremely well liked in fashionable Paris. 

In spite of this, however, the new President did not find 
his position pleasant or easy. He had an authoritative 
character, and liked to have his own way, and also to discuss 
with his ministers the decisions which they submitted to 
his signature. He had been reared under strictly constitu- 
tional principles, but he was also very well aware of his rights 
under the Constitution of France, and had not the least 
intention of forgoing them, or of abandoning one single iota 
of his prerogatives. He was determined from the outset not 
to allow himself to become a mere figurehead in the govern- 
ment, but to make use of his privilege to be put au courant 
s 273 



France from Behind the Veil 

of everything that was being done around him. His was 
essentially a lighting temperament, and it was bound to 
bring him into conflict with his ministers, who had been 
accustomed to the resignation with which both M. Jules 
Grevy and M. Sadi Carnot had acquiesced in everything 
that had been proposed to them. 

Much has been said concerning the resignation of M. 
Casimir Perier, and for a long time it was believed even among 
people who ought to have known better that he had retired 
owing to threats which the German Ambassador, Count 
Munster, had uttered at the time of the first Dreyfus affair. 
I have strong reasons to believe that it was nothing of the 
kind which influenced him. The legend of Captain Dreyfus 
having been a German spy exploded long ago, and Count 
Munster never found himself under the least necessity of 
resorting to threats, though with a certain amount of justice 
he may have felt disgusted at the way the person of his 
Sovereign was dragged into the disreputable affair. 

The sole reason of M. Casimir Perier's retirement lay 
in the sincere conviction that very soon got hold of him, 
that he would not be allowed to do what he liked, or even to 
attempt to resist the rising tide of Radicalism which he would 
have preferred to keep down. He was rich, independent, 
and of an easy and lazy temperament, which made him im- 
patient of the resistance which his best intentions met from 
the very people who ought to have appreciated them. 

He soon realised that if he clung to position he would 
be overturned as were his predecessors, Marshal MacMahon 
and M. Thiers, and rather than be told to go awa}' he preferred 
to take leave of uncongenial colleagues, and to retire with 
all the honours of war. He had made many friends during 
his short tenure of ofhce, but had also contrived to acquire 
many enemies, and somehow the fact of the existence of 

274 



Two Presidents 

these last jarred upon his nerves, influencing him perhaps 
more than it should, because those in high places have no 
right to be too sensitive. One cannot change one's character, 
however, and that of M. Casimir Perier could not brook the 
thorns which were entwined with the roses that strewed his 
path. He showed, on his retirement, an obstinacy with which 
he has been very bitterly reproached by his personal friends, 
for he did so in spite of the supplications of all who composed 
his immediate entourage. He declared he should go away, 
and go away he did. 

He had been on very good terms with all the foreign 
Ambassadors and diplomats accredited at the Elysee, and 
these, one and all, bitterly regretted his departure. M. 
Casimir Perier had tact and great knowledge of the world, 
a quality that his predecessors more or less lacked. Per- 
haps it was from this cause that during the few short months 
of his Presidency the relations of the French Government with 
the German Embassy had become more cordial than had 
been the case since the war. 

Talking of the German Embassy, I have already men- 
tioned Count Munster. He was a great friend of mine, and 
perhaps one of the ablest men, under his lazy indolent manner, 
that the German diplomatic service has ever possessed. His 
wife having been English, he liked England better than any 
other nation, not excepting his own, in certain cases. He 
looked like an EngHshman, too, and nothing pleased him 
more than to be taken for one. Essentially a grand seigneur 
of the old school, he was incapable of meanness, and even 
in his diplomatic relations he always avoided saying any- 
thing that he did not really think or beheve to be the truth. 
Placed in a very delicate position in Paris, where German 
diplomats were strenuously avoided by all those who were 
not obliged to receive them, he contrived even there to make 

275 



France from Behind the Veil 

a position for himself, still better, perhaps, than Prince 
Hohenlohe, notwithstanding the fact that the latter had 
relatives among the society of the Faubourg St. Germain, 
where he had been warmly welcomed before the war, but 
which gave him the cold shoulder when he returned to 
Paris in an official capacity after the disasters of 1870. And 
yet Prince Hohenlohe had far more conciliatory manners 
than Count Munster, and was a far pleasanter man in social 
relations ; also, perhaps, he had more shrewdness than the 
latter, and certainly was more amenable to compromise if 
the necessity for such occurred. But the Count made him- 
self respected wherever he appeared, I mean respected in 
the sense that he conveyed the impression that he would 
never allow himself to be trifled with, whilst always ready 
to meet his opponents in everything except in yielding to 
them. 

This digression has led me far away from M. Casimir 
Perier and his retirement from public life, and I must return 
in order to relate the circumstances which followed upon 
his resignation. To say the least of it, his action considerably 
embarrassed not only his ministers, but also the leaders of 
the different parties in both Chambers. 

For the second time within one year the country was called 
upon to elect a President of the Republic, and for the second 
time the event came as a total surprise upon France and 
upon its politicians. Once more candidates made themselves 
heard, and once again, in presence of those who pretended 
that they had the best right not to be passed by in this political 
Derby, an outsider won the prize, and M. Felix Faure, about 
whom no one had thought, was elected to the Presidency of 
the French Republic. 

M. Felix Faure was chiefly known because he had been 
vice-president of the famous Ligue des Patriotes, the president 

276 



Two Presidents 

of which was then, and till his death in the early months 
of 1914, the ardent Paul Deroulede. This fact alone would 
have been sufficient to excite the apprehensions of Germany, 
and M. Faure understood this so well that he at once made 
up his mind to pose outright as a partisan of the Russian 
alliance, that dream of all French political men ever since the 
establishment of the Third Republic. 

M. Felix Faure was far from being a stupid man : he had 
his points of ridicule which perhaps did him more harm than 
real defects would have done. He had vanity to an inordinate 
degree, loved luxury and splendour, and enjoyed the external 
advantages of his new position with an almost childish joy. 
He fondly imagined that he had been born to the purple 
which had been thrown upon his shoulders, and without the 
instincts of a parvenu he yet behaved like one. 

He had, however, a far greater knowledge of politics than 
he has ever been given credit for, and he was a sincere patriot, 
though his patriotism was an essentially selfish one. It is 
to be doubted whether he ever would have reconciled himself 
to a return to the life of an ordinary citizen, and perhaps 
the greatest luck of a life which was very lucky, when all is 
said and done, was his death when still in the enjoyment of 
the privileges of a position he had grown to love. 

But I repeat it again, he was no mean politician. It was 
under his tenure of office that the Russian alliance was es- 
tablished, and he certainly showed keen perspicacity in the 
way in which he contrived to bring it about, as well as by 
the perseverance he displayed on this occasion. 

It was M. Faure who first thought of sending the French 
fleet to Cronstadt, and it was he who insisted on the great 
reception that was awarded to the Russians when their fleet 
came to Toulon. It was he, also, who first tried to win over the 
Russian Ambassador, M. de Mohrenheim, to his views on the 

2^^ 



France from Behind the Veil 

subject, and who did not hesitate to resort to all kinds of 
diplomatic arguments in order to win his interest. 

Later on M. Mohrenheim gave himself all the credit for 
the result of the conferences which took place at that particular 
time between him and M. Faure, conferences about which the 
world heard nothing, and suspected even less. But though 
Russian diplomacy prided herself upon having hit on this 
brilliant idea of a rapprochement with France, as a safeguard 
against the ambitions of the Triple Alliance, the fact remains, 
and is well known to all those who have been behind the 
scenes of what was going on in Europe at that particular 
time, that it was in France that the idea originated, and that 
this idea had been carefully entertained and impressed upon 
the French nation by none other than M. Felix Faure. 

Apart from any statesmanlike leanings and aspirations 
which did exist in him, he was drawn towards it by his own 
personal vanity, and the desire to be able to welcome in Paris 
as his guests, hrst the representatives of the most autocratic 
Sovereign in the world, and later on that Sovereign himself, 
by whom he, the son of a Ha\Te tanner, would be treated as 
an equal. That would be a triumph indeed, and in order to 
obtain it he used every effort to break through all the 
barriers which existed between the realisation of his dream 
and the hard reality. 

Huge sums of money were spent at that time both in France 
and in Russia in order to prepare the pubhc mind, through 
the press, for this extraordinary turn in the politics of both 
countries. The campaign was engineered with consummate 
skill, and very few people saw through it. It veiy quickly 
brought about the wished-for results, and might have done so 
even more quickly had it not been for various indiscretions com- 
mitted by M. Mohrenheim, whose personal wants were some- 
times ahead of the march of events, and who allowed himself 

278 



Two Presidents 

upon one or two occasions to let his impatience take the upper 
hand of his prudence, and in order to satisfy those for whom 
he worked to attack with violence certain French politicians 
whom he feared might prove rebellious against the efforts 
which were being made. He tried, therefore, to obUge them 
to walk in the path mapped out for them. 

One of these two occasions arose when M. Clemenceau, 
who already at that time had made for himself an eminent 
position in the ranks of the Radical party, whose leader 
he was supposed to be, uttered some doubts as to whether the 
French Government was not going too far in its advances 
to Russia, and was compromising the dignity of France 
without feeling sure that its conduct would be reciprocated 
on the banks of the Neva. Alexander III. was reigning still, 
and it was very well known he had no sympathies for Re- 
publics in general, and many people believed, together with 
Clemenceau, that though the Marseillaise had been played 
at the State dinner which was given at Peterhof in honour 
of the French naval squadron anchored at Cronstadt, things 
would not go further, and the Tsar would hesitate a very 
long time before he would condescend to admit Marianne in 
his intimacy, and to walk hand in hand with her, amidst the 
crowned heads of Europe, whilst they stood aghast at the 
unexpected spectacle. 

Furious to discover that the doubts uttered by M. 
Clemenceau had found an echo among many prudent French 
political circles, Baron Mohrenheim, in his impatience, un- 
burdened his outraged feelings to the ]\Iarquis de Mores, 
that fierce adversary of everything that had to do mth the 
Republic and its partisans. Mores did not hesitate to say 
openly that it was the Radical party in France that was 
doing its best to prevent an alliance with Russia, for which 
the latter country was yearning. Upon this Clemenceau, 

279 



France from Behind the Veil 

indignant and never behindhand on occasions when he could 
attack someone, took up his best Toledo pen and wrote to 
the Russian Ambassador the following letter, which certainly 
deserves not to fall into oblivion, where it has remained these 
long years : 

" Paris, September yfh, 1892. 

" Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, — In a letter that has been 
made public, the Marquis de Mores declares quite positively 
that you have exchanged with him the following remarks ; 
' We do not know in Russia with whom we can treat here. 
The greater number of public functionaries and officials and 
the whole of the press is in the hands of the Jews, or of England. 
I have not sufficient money to be able to fight them, 
whilst England is prodigal with hers, Clemenceau is openly 
attacking, in the corridors of the Chamber, the alliance with 
Russia ; I am getting very uneasy, the more so that I do not 
see upon whom I could eventually lean in case of necessity.' 

" I only desire to notice in these words of yours the part 
which refers to myself. 

" I cannot allow you, by reason of your official position 
as Ambassador, to attribute to me publicly language of 
that kind without declaring to you that you have been 
misinformed. 

" When the Tsar stood up to listen to the Marseillaise, 
I was, as all Frenchmen were too, justly proud at this public 
homage rendered to my country. Before the whole of Europe, 
looking attentively at what was taking place on that day, 
the French nation put her hand loyally into the hand that 
had stretched itself towards her, 

"It is not my place to discuss with you. Monsieur l'Am- 
bassadeur, the consequences of the events which have taken 
place at Cronstadt ; all that I can say is that no one desires 

280 



Two Presidents 

more ardently than I do that these might prove beneficial 
for both nations, and also for the whole of Europe. 

" Any excesses of zeal connected with such a noble cause 
find most certainly their excuse in that cause itself. It is 
only to be regretted that they also might harm it. It is for 
that very reason, I do not doubt, that by thinking the thing 
over you have already convinced yourself that the ancient 
precept of * Ne quid nimis' especially when such important 
interests are at stake, is an excellent safeguard. 

" As concerns myself, I put it into practice to-day. You 
are our honoured guest, Monsieur I'Ambassadeur ; allow me 
not to forget it, and to beg of you to accept the assurance 
of my most respectful feelings. 

" (Signed) Georges Clemenceau." 

This letter considerably embarrassed Baron Mohrenheim, 
the more so because he did not reply to it immediately : after 
it had been published by the Agence Havas, the papers took 
it up, and different reporters called upon the Russian Am- 
bassador to ask him for explanations. He gave them but 
lamely, thus making himself more ridiculous. For instance, 
he declared that he had been away from Paris when it had 
been brought to his secretary. Baron Korff, and that the 
latter had forgotten to deliver it to him immediately upon 
his return, so that he had only learned its contents through 
the press. In fact, he made many groundless excuses and 
only added to the embarrassment of the position. At last 
on the 1 2th of September the Agence Havas published the 
following reply from the Russian Ambassador to the leader 
of the Radical party in the Chamber: 

" Paris, September 12th, 1892. 
" Monsieur le Depute, — The Agence Havas publishes 
a letter which you have been kind enough to address to me 

281 



France from Behind the Veil 

on the seventh of the present month. On that day I was 
at Aix-les-Bains, which I left on the next day, Thursday, 
to return to Paris only yesterday, Sunday. 

" I hasten to inform you that your letter has not yet 
reached me to-day, otherwise you may rest assured that I 
would have eagerly taken this opportunity to express to you 
my most sincere thanks for it. 

" Nothing could have afforded me greater satisfaction 
than to be able to convince myself thus of the real and 
frank feelings of sympathy which you express to me for my 
country, and to read about the good wishes which you add 
in it towards the prosperity of a cause common to us both 
and dear to us both, thus doing away with misunderstandings, 
and making them henceforward impossible. As you express 
yourself, Monsieur le Depute, ' Ne quid nimis ' ought to be 
the motto of us both, and as you may well believe, I have 
had more than one opportunity to remember it in many 
circumstances which I have witnessed during the long years 
of my public life, a life that has always been devoted to the 
different tasks I have been entrusted with. 

" Will you kindly receive. Monsieur le Depute, the assur- 
ance of my distinguished and devoted consideration. 

" (Signed) Baron de Mohrenheim." 

In publishing this reply of the Russian Ambassador, the 
Agence Havas added that M. Clemenceau had hastened to 
inform it that his letter had been handed over to the secretary 
of the Baron, M. de Korff, on September 8th, who had given 
an undertaking that he should deliver it personally to the 
Ambassador immediately upon the latter's return to Paris. 
In spite of the frantic efforts made by the Russian and French 
Governments to minimise the impression produced by this 
correspondence, the prestige of M. de Mohrenheim suffered 

282 



Two Presidents 

considerably from its publication, and he had perforce to 
become more careful in the future. 

But he was not removed from his post. Indeed, it very 
rarely happens that a Russian official is obliged to retire 
into private life by reason of his public mistakes. The Rus- 
sians are an enduring people. The Baron was to witness 
many other triumphs, especially that of being able to welcome 
Nicholas II. and his consort in Paris, which event consider- 
ably added to his personal prestige, and also to his personal 
advantages. 

To return to M. Felix Faure, he went on quietly pursuing 
the course he had embarked upon, and preparing the ground 
for the great things which he felt himself called upon to perform 
in the near future. He was so sure of the ultimate success of 
his plans that he began to make ready the Elysee for the glories 
that awaited it. He drew largely on the credits put at his 
disposal for the upkeep of the palace, he tried to give to his 
household the appearance of a real Court in miniature, to train 
not only the officers and civilians attached to his person to 
perform their duties according to the old etiquette that had 
prevailed during the Monarchy, but also to put his servants, 
his stables, his kitchens, and the maintenance of the state 
with which he liked to surround himself on the footing he 
considered to be necessary to the Chief Magistrate of the 
Republic. He also — and this effort is perhaps the most 
meritorious of all those he made at the time — did his best 
to assimilate the habits and customs prevailing in the higher 
classes of society, and he succeeded admirably in doing so, 
helped as he was by the numerous fair ladies at whose shrine 
he worshipped. 

But where he showed the greatest tact was in avoiding 
incidents like the one which we have just related concerning 
M. de Mohrenheim. Had he been President of the RepubUc 

283 



France from Behind the Veil 

at the time it occurred, he would certainly have been made 
aware of the possibility, or rather the likelihood of its happening, 
and taken measures to avoid its reaching public knowledge. 
The alliance with Russia, which was in the air when he was 
elected to the Presidency, and which during the term of M. 
Carnot had been started in a preliminary manner by certain 
influential people, was in part his personal work. I have said 
that it was he who had first thought of sending the French 
fleet to Cronstadt. He was at that time only a minister, and 
did not dream of ever becoming Head of the State, but he saw 
already looming in the distance the great things which were 
bound to follow for France in the event of the public recog- 
nition of its Republican Government by the most powerful 
Monarch of Europe, and he felt that something of the glory 
of such an event was bound to cling to his own humble person, 
which might, thanks to this circumstance, come forward 
more brilliantly than he could have hoped for when he first 
entered public life. 

He was to reap his reward, and he must have realised it 
on that lovely autumn day when he went to receive Nicholas H., 
and his Consort at the railway station of the Bois de Boulogne 
in Paris. As he drove along, sitting opposite to them in the 
Daumont with outriders, in which they made their State 
entry into the French capital, he may well be pardoned if 
he forgot the beginnings of his poUtical career, and the modest 
villa where his early days had been spent at Havre. Can 
one wonder if he lost his head a little, in the presence of that 
unhoped for success, and that, having such an opportunity 
to be on equal footing with a real Sovereign, he forgot some- 
times that he was not one himself ? 



284 



CHAPTER XXIV 

Imperial and Presidential Visits 

M. Felix Faure had been but a short time President when 
the Emperor Alexander III. died in such an unexpected 
manner. This untoward event interfered with the advances 
France had in contemplation ; indeed, already in Paris there 
had been talk of Russia as la nation amie et alliee. But, on 
the other hand, the obsequies of the Emperor gave the French 
Government an opportunity of manifesting its sympathies 
with Russia. A special military mission, headed by General 
Boisdeffre, at that time head of the General Staff, was sent 
to St. Petersburg, where it remained until the marriage of 
the new Tsar. It was not only made much of by those who 
favoured a rapprochement with France, of whom there were 
a considerable number in Russian society, but thanks to the 
ability of the French Ambassador, Comte de MontebeUo, was 
also brought into contact with leading Russian politicians. 
It was then that the conditions of a defensive alliance be- 
tween both countries came under serious discussion. The new 
Emperor showed himself unusually gracious to aU the members 
of the mission, and when General Boisdeffre timidly remarked 
that the President of the Republic would be envious of the 
honour he had experienced of being brought into personal 
contact with His Majesty, Nicholas replied, half jokingly and 
half earnestly, that^ perhaps he would pay a visit to the 
President in Paris, which city he had a great desire to 
see. 

285 



France from Behind the Veil 

These words raised roseate anticipations at the time, and 
later on were seized upon by the French Government and 
construed into a promise made by the Emperor Nicholas II. 
to visit M. Felix Faure, then President of France. Nor was 
the Emperor allowed to forget. General Boisdeffre returned 
to Russia some sixteen months later for the Coronation of 
the Tsar, and there, together with Comte de Montebello, 
had many serious conversations with Prince Lobanoff, the 
Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and with General Obrout- 
scheff, then head of the Russian General Staff, who, being 
married to a Frenchwoman, was one of the staunchest sup- 
porters of an alliance wdth France. At a direct result of these 
interviews, Nicholas II. was induced to promise that his visits 
to European Courts on the occasion of his accession to the 
throne would include one to Paris. 

When the news became official, the enthusiasm it excited 
among all classes in France was absolutely indescribable. 
I remember that one morning, as I was walking down the 
Champs Elysees, I saw two workmen, who were mending 
one of the lanterns of the Avenue, eagerly scanning a news- 
paper with a portrait of the Tsar, and heard one say to the 
other, " C'est celui-la qui va nous debarrasser des Prus- 
siens" ("He is the man who will rid us of the Prussians"). 
The whole nation saw itself once more in possession of Alsace 
and Lorraine, and never thought about the impending 
Imperial visit as anything else than the first step towards 
that consummation. 

In Russia, however, we did not care for it at all. It seemed 
humiliating to our national pride that our Sovereign should 
make the first advances to a country the government of which 
represented everything that was antipathetic to an autocracy 
like ours. When I say " we," I am talking of the saner elements 
of our country. In Russia, as well as in France, the anti- 

286 



Imperial and Presidential Visits 

German elements hailed the situation with joy, and hoped 
great things from a closer union of the two nations. 

The Emperor on his side could not but feel flattered at 
the shower of praise and compliments that fell from the 
French nation and the French press. It tickled his fancy to 
be received in triumph in the capital of a Republican country, 
and to find prostrate at his feet its most rabid Radicals. 
He did not see, or did not care to see, the undercurrents that 
actuated this enthusiasm ; besides, Russia wanted a loan, and 
wanted it under favourable conditions. The presence of the 
Tsar in Paris ensured the success of such an operation, and, 
as Henri IV. said, " Paris vaut bien une messe." 

It is to be questioned which of the two countries indulged 
most in platitudes on this memorable occasion, France, at 
least, was actuated by the legitimate desire to recover her 
lost provinces, and she may well be forgiven if she allowed 
herself to be carried away beyond the limits of that courtesy 
which a great nation is bound to show to any foreign Sovereign 

who honours it with a visit. But Russia Was it 

worthy of her, was it dignified on the part of the Monarch so 
to stoop in order to get the money she wanted without 
the least intention to hold to the other side of the bargain, 
or to run into a war with Germany in order to gratify the 
feelings of revenge which animated the French nation ? 

Paris had turned out en masse to see the royal entry. 
It was a little after ten o'clock when the report of the guns 
of Mont Valerien announced the arrival of the Imperial train 
at the Ranelagh station. Immediately the crowd began to 
cheer, long before they caught sight of the troops which 
escorted the carriage in which the Emperor and Empress, 
with the President, were driving. The French Government 
had chosen these troops with great care, and given the prefer- 
ence to the Spahis and Arabs from Algeria, whose picturesque 

287 



France from Behind the Veil 

costumes and white burnouses added to the general splendour 
of the brilliant scene. 

It was an event without precedent, this recognition by 
the only autocratic Monarch left in Europe, of a Republic from 
which hitherto foreign Sovereigns had more or less held aloof. 
It was bound to create a deep sensation, not only in France, 
but throughout the world ; and its consequences promised 
at that moment to become stupendous. In reality they were 
absolutely insignificant, and France certainly played the part 
of the dupe in this queer comedy. 

But it was not of this that Paris was thinking as it welcomed 
its Russian ally. When the mob saw the Empress, pale and 
lovely, in her white dress, with an immense bouquet of flowers 
reposing in her lap, as she sat beside her Consort, who wore 
the dark green tunic of the Preobragensky Regiment, with the 
red ribbon of the Legion of Honour across his breast, its joy 
overstepped all bounds ; it was more like a delirium of mad 
enthusiasm than anything else. But it was in the Place de 
la Concorde that the manifestations became quite grandiose. 
And I must say that of all the popular demonstrations I have 
ever witnessed it was the most imposing. Row upon row of 
human beings were massed like shots in a cartridge, which 
seemed suddenly on the passage of the Imperial carriage 
to explode into one single shout, whilst opposite, under the 
waving flags and banners on the terrace of the Tuileries, long 
lines of officers in uniform stood looking on the scene over 
the heads of the crowd. The statues were covered with 
human beings, boys and men who had climbed upon them to 
have a better view of the procession. 

Only one, that of the town of Strasburg, was undecorated, 
and its bareness seemed more than suggestive to the impartial 
spectator. When M. Felix Faure pointed it out to the Em- 
peror the acclamations of the mob became deafening. It 

288 



Imperial and Presidential Visits 

was a triumph indeed, and if you had asked any one of these 
people why they were howUng away their enthusiasm and 
joy, they would each and all have replied that it meant " Une 
Alsace Frangaise," and that by his visit to Paris Nicholas II. 
was tacitly promising it to the French people. 

The only one who appeared unconscious of the significance 
attributed to his visit was the Emperor himself. Perhaps he 
knew that whatever people might think, he was not going 
to risk the life of even one of his soldiers in order to gratify 
the wild hatred of France against his German neighbours; 
perhaps, also, he was merely amused by the bright scene 
that stretched itself before his eyes ; or, maybe, he was 
thinking that it would have been a good thing had his own 
subjects showed such demonstrative joy whenever he showed 
himself in the streets of his own capital. It was something 
new to him to see the whole population of a great city let 
loose without police surveillance — at least, none that was 
apparent ; a vast multitude who seemed only eager to catch 
one of his smiles. 

Later on, however, a few discordant notes were heard, even 
before the Tsar had left Paris. For one thing, the most rabid 
Radicals reproached Nicholas with having called personally on 
M. Loubet, President of the Senate, and M. Brisson, President 
of the Chamber of Deputies. These visits were not in the 
programme of the journey, and people said that by making 
them the Emperor was identifying himself with the political 
opinions of these personages, which were held in suspicion 
by the Socialists, who had already become very powerful at 
that time. 

On the other hand, the Conservatives were quite indignant 

to hear that at the reception given in his honour at the 

Hotel de Ville, Nicholas II. had cordially shaken by the hand 

a municipal councillor, who in long bygone days had made 

T 289 



France from Behind the Veil 

himself conspicuous by sending an address of congratulation 
to Hartmann, one of the assassins of Alexander II. 

Then, to crown all, the leaders of French society and 
of the Faubourg St. Germain, who had been invited to meet 
the Russian Sovereigns at a lunch given by Baron and 
Baroness de Mohrenheim, felt sadly chagrined that neither the 
Emperor nor the Empress had thought fit to address a single 
word to any of them, though there were present such great 
ladies as the Duchesse d'Uzes, the Duchesse de Luynes, and 
Madame Aimery de la Rochefoucauld. 

But all these criticisms proceeded from the few. The 
many and the masses felt more than gratified at the unexpected 
honour which had fallen upon France. The enthusiasm was 
especially great after the toasts exchanged at Chalons between 
the Tsar and the French President, and to give an idea of the 
illusions which at that particular moment seized the whole 
French nation, with but very few exceptions, I will reproduce 
here a letter which I received one or two days after the 
departure of the Russian visitors from a political man who, 
by virtue of his official position, ought to have been able to 
judge of the consequences which this effervescence of the French 
public mind might have in the future, and which proves under 
what strange misconceptions some people were labouring : 

" I am not at aU of your opinion when you tell me that 
you deplore the facility with which the French nation has 
prostrated itself at the feet of the Cossack. What wind 
coming from the perfidious shores of Albion could have made 
you say such a thing ? First of all, he is not a Cossack, 
this young Emperor of yours. On the contrary, he produces, 
together with his fair Egeria, an immense impression of great- 
ness, seen, as he has been here, in the full sunlight of our 
intensive French civilisation, with his little girl in the back- 
ground. As for the French crowds, they haven't, believe me, 

290 



Imperial and Presidential Visits 

prostrated themselves before him ; they have only exchanged 
a long and passionate embrace with Russia ; that is, with a 
Europe independent of the Prussian Empire. In this triumphal 
march of an Imperator towards our pseudo-Republican 
capital, the oldest and most experienced crowned foxes the 
world has ever seen have found their Tarpeian rock. Your 
young Imperial ephebe has emerged out of it admirably. 
Nothing that he has done has been out of place ; he has shown 
simplicity, cordiality, good taste, tact, and everything, in 
short, that he ought to have done, without one single false 
note to mar the concert. In his place, William II. would only 
have shown the weight of his sword and invited us to test 
it. Nicholas II. is above all this, and has proved himself 
of stronger stuff. It is because, in the present case, the 
comedians, who generally act in presence of Her Majesty 
Humanity, are put to shame by another and newer spectacle, 
which is far more powerful than the old scene upon which 
they had been used to play since time immemorial. 

" In spite of everything, real life will overthrow the false 
limits into which one has tried to confine it, and the Treaty 
of Frankfurt will share the fate of those of Paris in 
1815 and of Westphalia. It was only real life that could 
have been strong enough to accomplish this superb effort, and 
to set itself up on the ruins of that old mischievous diplomacy 
which has produced that snake with three heads called the 
Triple Alliance. 

" Only two nations could possibly have performed this 
miracle, and could have risen against the slavery in which, 
until now, Europe has been held in the bondage of the infernal 
policy of Prince Bismarck. He is the only real Cossack in 
the sense we generally attribute to that word, the Cossack 
before whom France, even when he vanquished her, has 
refused to prostrate herself, and against whom she has risen 

291 



France from Behind the Veil 

with sufficient courage and sufficient strength to deliver 
from his yoke both Russia and the dynasty of Romanoff, 
and to snatch it from the sphere of Prussian influence. Our 
two nations have married each other without the help of any 
notary, and without the need for any written treaty, and their 
union means peace, real peace, against general war which 
Bismarck wanted to transform into a stahts quo. This is 
civilisation in the highest sense, and Europe owes it not 
to the fact that France has prostrated herself before Russia, 
but to the energetic manner in which the former has tried 
and succeeded in establishing its military strength, and re- 
deeming its lost military prestige." 

I have transcribed this curious letter in its entirety, as 
it can give, better than anything else, an idea as to the state 
of feeling which was prevailing in Paris in the autumn of 
the year 1896, when, for the first time since the fall of the 
Empire of the Napoleons, a foreign monarch was officially 
received with enthusiastic welcome within the doors of the 
capital. The enthusiasm was as false as the visit itself, but 
it cannot be denied that it gave greater stability to the 
Republic and considerably discouraged its enemies. 

Nevertheless, nearly a whole year passed before M. Faure 
returned this memorable visit, and accomplished his passionate 
desire by being welcomed on Russian shores in his capacity 
of head of the French Republic. He arrived at Peterhof on a 
French man-of-war, escorted by a numerous and powerful 
squadron, and was received with a cordiality that must have 
considerably increased any illusions he may have had concerning 
the sincerity of the Russian alliance. St. Petersburg showed 
unusual enthusiasm, and the Imperial family treated him 
with a familiarity that must have ravished his parvenu heart. 
As he wrote to one of his friends in Paris, he held on his knees 
the little Grand Duchess Olga, to whom he had brought the 

292 



Imperial and Presidential Visits 

most splendid present of dolls any Imperial child ever received, 
and the fact of having thus nursed in his arms the youngest 
member of the Romanoff family evidently appealed to his 
feelings. He began to think himself equal to all these crowned 
heads with whom he found himself so unexpectedly thrown 
into contact, and to believe himself the real Sovereign of 
France. 

It was dating from this famous visit that M. Faure assumed 
the semi-royal manners which considerably displeased many 
of his former friends, and caused him to be ridiculed more 
than he deserved in the popular cafes chantants of Paris. And, 
strange though it may appear, the real popularity which M. 
Faure had enjoyed until the period of his return from Russia 
began to wane. The public reproached him for not having 
made the most of his opportunities and for having forgotten, 
in his childish joy at the grandeur and magnificence of the 
reception awarded to him, the real object of his visit. Dis- 
appointment at the failure to convince Nicholas II. of the 
necessity of immediately declaring war on Germany began 
to make itself felt among the French nation, and, little by 
little, both the influence of M. Faure and the sympathy for 
Russia began to disappear among the public, which realised 
that all the fuss proceeded from the simple desire on the 
part of Russia to get the money she wanted at a cheap rate, 

I had been away on leave for a few months when I returned 
to France, and on the very day I reached Paris I happened 
to meet the person from whom I had received a year before 
the letter which I have reproduced. I could not help asking 
him whether he still was of the opinion which he had professed 
when he had written to me that enthusiastic anticipation of 
the estabHshment of a solid alliance between France and 
Russia for the special purpose of a joint attack against Germany. 

I found him furious against M. Faure, to whom he attri- 

293 



France from Behind the Veil 

buted the delay. Another President, he asserted, would have 
laid down positive conditions before he had consented to pay 
a visit to Peterhof, and made it subservient to a promise of 
immediately beginning hostilities against Germany. When I 
objected that, in common courtesy, M. Faure could not have 
excused himself from accepting the invitation that he had 
received personally from the Russian Emperor, my friend 
replied in those characteristic words : " Je ne vois pas la 
necessite de cela, au contraire, M. Faure aurait souligne la 
dignite de la France, en prouvant qu'elle ne se derange pas 
pour rien " {" I do not see the necessity for it ; on the contrary, 
M. Faure would have given a proof of the dignity which pre- 
vails in France if he had shown that she does not put herself 
out for nothing "). 

This phrase, coming as it did from a man who was at 
the period playing an important part in French politics, will 
give an idea as to the opinions which began to prevail against 
M. Faure. 

The Dreyfus affair, which began at that period, intensified 
it. He did not, however, live to realise this. He seriously 
believed himself to be the right man in the right place, which, 
in a certain sense, he was, because of all the Presidents who 
have held office during the forty odd years of the existence of 
the Third Republic in France, he was, perhaps, the only one 
that contrived to give it the illusion of a monarchy. 

A great deal has been written concerning the sudden death 
of M. Fehx Faure. It is unfortunately certain that it took 
place under much to be deplored circumstances. It is also 
certain that the manner of his death has thrown upon his 
memory an unpleasant shade. 

Alas ! alas ! poor Yorick. In a Republican country the 
abuses of monarchy can but too often be met with, and in 
the case of M. Felix Faure these came very prominently to 

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Imperial and Presidential Visits 

the front. He played at being a small King, even so far as to 
allow, in a Republican country, the establishment of the old 
custom of there being always " une favorite de roi " at his 
side. 

But I must say once I am touching on that subject that 
I do not believe for a moment the assertions of the lady in 
question, that M. Faure used to consult her in political matters, 
and that she had great influence over him in that respect. 
M. Faure was an exceedingly shrewd politician, and knew per- 
fectly well what he was about. He was also perfectly aware 
that he had numerous enemies who, if they had been able 
once to prove that he was confiding gravest matters of State 
to the discretion of another, would not have hesitated 
to make use of this fact to overthrow him, or at least to put 
him in such a position that he would have been obliged to 
send in his resignation. And M. Faure cared for his position 
as President of the French Republic, and would not have 
jeopardised it for anything in the world, least of all for a 
woman. 

Perhaps it was as well for his own sake that death removed 
him from the political scene, before the curtain fell on the 
hnal act in the Dreyfus drama. What he would have done 
had he seen all that ensued after the discovery of the forgery 
of Colonel Henry, the knowledge of which made him so un- 
happy, and after the second condemnation of Captain Dreyfus 
at Rennes, it is difficult to say. Those who have known 
him well, told me that he had been very much troubled at 
the development this miserable business took so unexpectedly, 
and that he often regretted that he had not interfered and 
pardoned Dreyfus at the time of this first condemnation. 

It seems that he had been very much tempted to do so, 
having always had some doubts in his own mind as to the 
Captain's culpability, but the President was also aware that 

295 



France from Behind the Veil 

his own popularity was on the wane, and that voices had 
already accused him of trying to make up to the German 
Emperor. 

This last fact deserves a few words of explanation. Some 
enemies of M. Faure had spread the gossip that his St. Peters- 
burg laurels had not been sufficient for his inordinate vanity, 
and that as, in spite of all his conversations with Nicholas II. 
he had not succeeded in inducing the latter to consent to 
the adoption by Russia of an aggressive poUcy against Germany, 
he had tried to bring about some kind of arrangement with 
the German Emperor, and to persuade him to grant autonomy 
to Alsace and Lorraine. He knew that such a measure would 
have largely satisfied a certain section of public opinion in 
France. Serious politicians, however, knew very well that 
it was useless to hope that Germany would return without 
another war, and perhaps not even then, the provinces she had 
conquered at the cost of such stupendous sacrifices. 

Whether M. Felix Faure ever nursed such a dream, it is 
difficult to say, but it was attributed to him, and for an excitable 
people like the French such a rumour was sufficient to set the 
tide against the President. Had he at that juncture pardoned 
Captain Dreyfus the outcry would have been immense, and 
the word traitor would undoubtedly have been applied to 
him. He knew it well, and perhaps this made him keep 
more aloof than he ought to have done from the net of 
intrigues which surrounded the tragedy of the Hebrew officer 
who was to draw on his person the attention of the whole 
world. But it is also to be regretted, perhaps, that the 
President found himself with his hands tied on this memorable 
occasion, and that in his dread of losing his position he forgot 
his constitutional prerogatives. 



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CHAPTER XXV 

The French Press 

In the visit of Nicholas II. to Paris the press played a con- 
siderable part. Indeed in no country of the world do news- 
papers wield such an influence as they do in France, where 
the bourgeois, the workman, and the peasant believe implicitly 
in what the papers say, especially if his particular news-sheet 
has the chauvinistic opinions which he himself espouses. 
It would hardly have been possible to organise the magnificent 
reception which was awarded to the Emperor of Russia, if 
newspapers of all shades had not contributed to it their 
long articles written in praise of the future visitor and in 
general of the Russian nation and the Russian army. These 
were material factors in securing the popular demonstration 
that took place. Thanks to them the Russian loans were 
covered several times over, and Russian pohcy, be it in the 
East or elsewhere, was warmly supported by the powers that 
ruled at the Quai d'Orsay. 

The Minister for Foreign Affairs at that time was M. 
Gabriel Hanotaux, himself a writer of no mean talent, and 
a journahst in his spare moments. A few years later he was 
to be elected to the Academy for his fine work on the life of 
Cardinal Richelieu. M. Hanotaux was an excessively shrewd 
man, and moreover one who had a vast knowledge of the 
world ; he understood better than anyone else the use to 
which the press, and especially the daily press, can be put. 
He organised a special service which kept the whole of France 

297 



France from Behind the Veil 

informed as to the doings and sayings of the Russian Sovereigns, 
and was clever enough to give a spontaneous character to the 
vast manifestation of sympathy which threw France into 
the arms of Russia. 

I don't remember now who said, very wittily one must 
admit, that " each country and each epoch has the press 
which it deserves." That phrase is far from being the paradox 
it seems, because it is an undeniable fact, and particularly 
so in France, that though the press leads public opinion, yet 
it is public opinion which leads the press into the road where 
its instincts — political or financial — tell it to go. And in 
the last twenty-five years the French, and especially the 
Parisian, press has undergone a total transformation. It 
is no longer what it was in the time of the Second Empire, 
when the restraining hand of the government was always 
more or less over its head. At present independence reigns 
among the papers that rule the boulevards, though this does 
not prevent the principal among them from accepting the 
inspirations which come either from the Quai d'Orsay or from 
the Place Beauveau. In the latter place, journalists had a 
good time of it during the few months when M. Clemenceau, 
the most brilliant among them, reigned as its master, and did 
not disdain to communicate to the press his views and his 
opinions on one or other of the questions of the day. The 
Matin, the Journal, the Debats, and especially the Temps, 
like to entertain their readers in an atmosphere favourable 
to the ministry which happens to be in power. The last- 
named paper has upon its staff men of the rarest literary 
merit, among others M. Tardieu, who writes the leaders on 
foreign affairs and of whom Prince von Biilow once said jok- 
ingly that there " existed in Europe three great Powers 
and— M. Tardieu." 

That opinion had been endorsed long before it was uttered 

298 



The French Press 

by M. Adrien Hebrard, the greatest journalist that France 
ca;n boast, and of whom she can justly be proud. M. Hebrard, 
if he had only wished it, might have become an important 
political personage, a minister, a member of the French 
Academy, but to all these glories he preferred the editorship 
of the Temps. 

The paper is Republican in its opinions, with sometimes 
a leaning towards Radicalism, and stronger leanings still 
towards anti-Clericalism, At the same time, it has con- 
stantly displayed coolness in its judgments, and has always 
abstained from exaggerations either in one sense or the other. 
It has never failed in courtesy towards its antagonists, and 
has made itself respected, even when it has caused itself 
to be disliked. Everyone in political or social circles reads 
it with interest, and very often the news which it gives en 
derniere heure, as it is called, has a European importance, 
and is cabled all over the world. Its chronicles also are 
something more than those of other papers, and its dramatic 
weekly letter decides the success or failure of every new 
theatrical piece which sees the footlights of the principal 
Paris theatres. 

Another serious paper, whose importance is almost as 
great as that of the Temps, is the old Journal des Debuts, 
which is considered the organ of the Academy, and which 
certainly has always the last word to say concerning its 
elections. 

In the Dehats correct polished French is always to be 
found. It is grave, pompous, essentially bourgeois in its 
opinions, and is not read by the multitude. 

The three great organs that have acquired front-rank 
importance are certainly the Matin, the Journal, its rival 
in everything, even in impudence, and the Petit Parisien. 
You will find many people in Paris who do not know the 

299 



France from Behind the Veil 

Temps, except that they have seen it in the newspaper kiosks, 
you will find a great many more who do not know even 
that much about the Debuts, but you will never come across 
any man or woman, to begin with your concierge, and to end 
with the foremost politician in the Chamber, who does not 
know the Matin and its chief editor and proprietor, M. Alfred 
Edwards, of Lanthelme fame. In the opinion of many the 
Matin is not a credit to French journalism. 

More popular even than the Matin are the Journal and the 
Petit Parisien, whose proprietor, M. Jean Dupuy, has already 
been several times entrusted with a ministerial portfolio, 
and is a member of the Senate, where his opinion is always 
listened to with attention. The Petit Parisien has many 
editions, and is extensively read in the provinces. It instils 
into millions of people the Radical opinions which it pro- 
fesses. 

One of the reasons why everybody who can wield a pen 
in France turns to journalism nowadays lies in this know- 
ledge that it leads to anything one likes — and principally 
to politics, after which every Frenchman craves. In olden 
times every young man wanted to become a member of the 
Bar, persuaded that the Bar alone could lead him to the 
Chamber and thence to become a member of the government. 
At present journalists have it all their own way. I won't 
pretend to say that the change is by any means to 
advantage. 

The general tone of the press lacks sadly of sympathy. 
Journalists like M. Hebrard become rarer and rarer every 
day. The press is no longer a tribune, it is something like 
the servants' hall of political life, and though its successes 
are greater than they have ever been they are not lasting, 
and they are forgotten the very next hour after they have 
reached their culminating height. 

300 



The French Press 

Politics, thanks to this degeneration, have become a 
hurried, feverish occupation, are more talked about than dis- 
cussed, more felt than acted upon. Ministries, too, change 
far too often for France to work out her regeneration with 
anything like stability, and at present she is obliged to lean 
upon Russia, because only in so doing can she have any hope 
of remaining a Great Power. 

There are, however, a few great journalists left on the 
banks of the Seine, and I am sure that no one will contradict 
me when I say that one of the first places among the few 
is occupied by that remarkable man, Arthur Meyer, the son 
of a Jewish tailor and the grandson of a rabbi, who by a 
strange freak of destiny has become the most fervent supporter 
of both Monarchy and Catholicism. He was associated with 
Boulanger and also with that most ardent of anti-Semites, 
Edouard Drumont, and, after having become the friend, 
adviser, and counsellor of the Comte de Paris, who had re- 
placed Napoleon III. in his affections, succeeded in being 
admitted into the intimacy of the Duchesse d'Uzes and the 
noblest great ladies of the noble Faubourg, where at last 
he found himself a wife in the person of the charming but 
dowerless daughter of the Comte and Comtesse de Turenne. 

Such a career is one of the most curious products of our 
tim-es, and stranger still than its success is the fact that no 
one, save a few bad tempered people whose opinions do 
not count and to whom no one listens, has ever expressed 
the least astonishment at its development. Paris has ac- 
cepted M. Arthur Meyer just as it accepted the Republic 
and the institution of the Concours Hippique ; and Parisian 
society has acquired the habit of turning to him not only 
for news but also for the manner in which it ought to be re- 
ceived. He has become an oracle among certain circles, and 
his whiskers, his ties, and the shape and cut of his clothes 

301 



France from Behind the Veil 

are copied not only by fashionable men but also by fashion- 
able tailors. The morning coat of M. Meyer has replaced 
the frock coat of the Prince de Sagan, and the dinner-jacket 
of King Edward VII. 

I quoted at the beginning the remark that every country 
has the press which it deserves. I can complete it by saying 
that every society has the leader that it merits. And Parisian 
fashionable circles can boast of having kept M. Arthur Meyer, 
though circumstances compelled it to lose Count Boni de 
Castellane. 

I have mentioned the marriage of this favourite of the 
gods. People wondered at it excessively, but it would be 
extremely unfair to M. Meyer not to maintain that he decided 
to ask for the hand of Mademoiselle de Turenne under circum- 
stances that were entirely to his honour. The young girl 
belonged to a family just as illustrious as it was poor, and 
though she had very rich relations, none of them attempted 
to do anything in her favour nor even to try to marry 
her in her own sphere. Arthur Meyer was a frequent visitor 
at the house of her parents, and had many opportunities of 
watching the revolts of a youthful mind disgusted at what it 
perceived of the injustices of the world. One day she told 
him that she did not know what she could do to escape the 
misery of her existence, adding that she knew that only two 
roads were open to her, either a convent or the free life of 
a woman who had put aside all prejudices and the 
principles in which she had been reared. " And," she 
added, " I don't want to become a nun, I have not got 
the courage to leave the society to which I belong, and I 
would never commit suicide. I have often wondered what 
I could do." 

Meyer was above all chivalrous, and the despair of that 
young and lovely woman touched him deeply. He did not 

302 



The French Press 

love her, and he knew very well that she could feel no love 
for him, but he asked her to become his wife, and, after some 
hesitation, she accepted his offer. Of course society rose up 
in arms when it heard about it, but nevertheless neither 
her uncle, Count Louis de Turenne, nor her aunt, the Marquise 
de Nicolai, whose wealth could be counted by millions, ever 
tried by making her a small dowry to give her the chance of 
marrying within her own sphere. 

And so, one fine autumn day, the son of a little Jewish 
tailor became the husband of a girl whose ancestry had helped 
in the making of some of the most glorious pages in the 
history of France. Verily, life holds strange surprises in 
reserve for those who care to watch it. .; 

Arthur Meyer is altogether a curious type both as a man 
and as a journalist. One cannot help liking him even when one 
does not sympathise with his opinions, or with his person. 
He is an anomaly in everything, and no one would ever feel 
surprised at anything he might do or say. He has certainly 
forsaken his race and his creed, yet so thoroughly has he 
succeeded in impressing those who know him with his good 
qualities that he has never been repulsed for the light-hearted- 
ness with which he has burned the boats of his faith. 

M. Arthur Meyer is the proprietor of the Gaulois, the 
fashionable organ of fashionable Paris, of the upper ten 
thousand who constitute Parisian society, that motley crowd 
in which unfortunately money is the only passport needed 
to ensure an entrance. It has one rival, the Figaro. The 
Figaro is extremely well informed, has contributors of great 
talent, and is as eminently respectable as that kind of paper 
can be which devotes a large part to gossip more or less good- 
natured. But it is no longer what that king among journal- 
ists, Villemessant, had made it. 

Of papers in which popular passions are constantly appealed 

303 



France from Behind the Veil 

to, and in which one only seeks the criticism of the existing 
government, only one, the Presse, deserves more than a passing 
mention, and that only because its editor was M. Henri Roche- 
fort, who up to his death in 19 13 always wrote the leading 
article which figures at the head of the paper. M. Rochefort 
was one of the most extraordinary productions of modern 
journalism, to which he gave a direction that had been un- 
known until he initiated it. His talent, which was essentially 
critical, bordering on satire when it did not frankly take 
that tinge, procured for him a celebrity which spread far 
and wide beyond the frontiers of France. 

No one ever succeeded as he did in finding words that 
appealed to the mob, and which in a few words expressed so 
much. His Lanterne contributed more than anything else 
to the fall of the Empire, and Napoleon HI., who knew 
humanity perhaps better than anyone else, did not despise 
him as an adversary, although his importance was denied 
by Napoleon's ministers and entourage, who advised him to 
pay no notice to the weekly attacks of the Lanterne against 
his person and his government. One day M. Rouher 
tried to minimise the influence of that sheet, saying that 
though people read it, its attacks were despised. The Emperor 
replied that he knew it, but, he added, " I am also aware 
that there exist women whom we despise but to whom, 
nevertheless, we pay attention." 

There was a deep meaning in this simple phrase. Certain 
it was that all reasonable and well-thinking people despised 
the attacks against everything that others held sacred in 
which the Marquis de Rochefort Lu9ay continually indulged, 
but nevertheless the seeds blossomed in time ; indeed, no one 
more than himself contributed to discredit authority. By 
this Rochefort became the idol of the Parisian masses, and 
remained its favourite until his death. 

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The French Press 

I was very fond of M. Rochefort, and used to find great 
pleasure in spending a few hours in his company whenever I 
found an opportunity. Nothing could be more amusing 
than his conversation ; the mixture of cynicism and irony 
that now and then came out in brilliant paradoxes full of 
wit if devoid of common sense, constituted something quite 
unique, which was bound to appeal to the imagination of his 
listeners, and make them smile even when they felt a sense 
of distaste. 

He believed in nothing, not even in himself ; respected 
nothing, loved nothing, but Hked many things — his collec- 
tions, his pictures, his work, the influence which he imagined 
that he wielded around him, and which in reaUty was not so 
considerable as he thought. And he never hesitated before 
uttering one of his bon mots, or writing one of his bitter 
scathing articles, even when he was perfectly aware that by 
doing so he was hurting innocent people — people who had 
done no wrong, and who had only incurred his displeasure by 
being either related or connected with those who had become 
the subject of his criticism. 

The best description that one can make of M. Rochefort 
would be that he was " perfectly unscrupulous," and if he 
were still living I do not think he would deny that this 
was so. Rather, he would glory in it, because, as he 
once told me, " Dans ce monde il faut tou jours mordre, 
ne fut ce que pour oter aux autres la possibilite d'en faire 
autant avec vous" ("In this world one must always bite, 
if only to prevent others doing the same to you"). One 
could have replied to this remark that there are some 
mortal and some insignificant bites, and that it was not 
always the latter that he indulged in. 

A curious pecuHarity of M. Rochefort was that, fierce 
Republican though he pretended to be, yet he was inordinately 

u 305 



France from Behind the Veil 

fond of his name and of his title, and a servant who would 
forget to call him Monsieur le Marquis would be dismissed 
instantly. Bereft of his parents, and so without experience 
of the affection of home life, his earliest days were most 
difficult. 

Until he attempted journalism he had been a subordinate 
clerk at the Hotel de Ville, earning barely enough to keep body 
and soul together. He never forgot this period of his ex- 
istence, and, whenever he allowed himself to speak about it, 
a bitterness showed itself which he could not keep within 
bounds. 

One day, alluding to those dark and hopeless times, 
when he had spent many hours scribbling at some wearisome 
task, he said to me : " It is impossible for anyone who has not 
undergone it to imagine what it feels like to see the spring 
and not be able to get out of doors." The remark appeared 
to me almost too poetic to be the expression of a real feeling, 
but when I told him so, he replied quiet earnestly : " Evidently 
you have never experienced what it is to know that you are 
a drudge, although possessing the inner feeling that you are 
born to better things." I could not help then inquiring what 
his feelings had been when he was in prison, to which he ex- 
claimed : " Oh, that was very different, one always comes 
out of prison, but sometimes one never escapes from the 
necessity of earning one's bread and butter by copying the 
stupidities which other people have written." 

Before he died in July, 1913, the Marquis de Rochefort 
Lu9ay was a quasi-millionaire, the owner of one of the hand- 
somest houses in all Paris, received everywhere that he cared 
to go, a desired guest, and an envied journalist. Even in his 
later days his pen was as sharp as ever, though perhaps it 
was no longer appreciated as was the case in the later days of 
the Empire. 

306 



The French Press 

He was often to be seen at the Hotel Drouot, attending 
the principal art sales of the year, where his knowledge of 
pictures and bibelots was highly appreciated. His life was 
like a fairy tale in many things, and in others like a dark 
nightmare. He made many foes, and kept few friends. 
Appearing to be everlastingly dissatisfied, he was yet one of 
the happiest men in the world — perhaps because he was one 
of the most selfish. 



307 



CHAPTER XXVI 

The Presidency of M. Loubet 

The death of M. Felix Faure took France greatly by 
surprise ; the appointment of his successor astonished it 
even more. M. Loubet was President of the Senate, it is 
true, but his name had figured among those who had been 
mentioned in connection with the Panama scandal. This 
last fact was put forward by some people when the question 
arose of the candidature of M. Rouvier for the Presidency of 
the Republic, and caused it to be rejected. No one imagined, 
therefore, that it would be disregarded in the case of M. Loubet. 
He had many rivals, among them M. Brisson, M. de Freycinet, 
whose name came forward regularly whenever a Presidential 
election was about to take place, and the above-mentioned 
M. Rouvier. This candidate possessed a powerful personality 
and wielded an immense influence ; his experience had been 
varied, and his intelligence was certainly one of the foremost 
in France. Had he been elected to the Presidency his appoint- 
ment would have been received with great favour in Europe. 
On the other hand, M. Loubet was more or less an un- 
known person, supposed to be inoffensive and retiring, but 
possessed of a most violent anti- Clericalism, of which he had 
given every possible proof, in the hope that by these means 
he would make himself a persona grata with the Radical party, 
through whom he had secured the Presidency of the Senate, 
an office which hitherto had constituted the summum bomtrn 
of his ambitions. 

308 



Presidency of M. Loubet 

He had no wish to become President of the Republic, 
and it was with great reluctance he allowed his name to be put 
forward as a candidate. But he was under the influence of, 
or, what is even truer, dependent upon, M. Clemenceau. M. 
Clemenceau had lately come forward with considerable energy, 
especially since the Dreyfus affair once more was in the public 
mind, and he was such a considerable personage among the 
Radical party that they could not afford to disregard his 
orders or even his personal wishes. 

M. Clemenceau was the Henri Rochefort of political life, 
with far more intelligence and almost as much wit as the 
director of the Lanterne, with an extraordinary force of char- 
acter, very determined ideas, and about as few convictions 
as were indispensable to a man who had risen to the leadership 
of a powerful party. Moreover, he had real statesmanlike 
qualities. 

He had no great sympathy for the Russian alliance, which 
his ever-ready wit had quickly discerned, when all was said 
and done, to be a very one-sided affair. 

His sympathies were entirely English, and as such it was 
but natural he should not look with enchanted eyes upon a 
policy that was bound, by its close association with the diplo- 
macy pursued on the banks of the Neva, to become antagon- 
istic to that of the Court of St. James's. Perhaps it was for 
this very reason that he pushed forward the candidature of 
M. Loubet. 

He felt, or rather he knew, that M. Loubet had had nothing 
to do with the visit of the Tsar to Paris beyond receiving him 
when he called at the Luxembourg in defiance of etiquette 
and precedent. 

With a friend of his at the Elysee, the position of M. 
Clemenceau was perhaps even stronger than if he himself had 
been established within its walls. He had always admired 

309 



France from Behind the Veil 

the personality of Pere Joseph, so well known in the 
history of France as the adviser and counsellor of Richelieu. 
He intended playing the same part ; to govern under 
M. Loubet's name as far as the constitution allowed him, 
to govern the Republic which he secretly despised, but 
to which he clung, because he knew that it was the only 
government under which he could do absolutely what he 
liked. 

M. Clemenceau had taken a sincere Uking to a very attractive 
and very beautiful lady. He is still on terms of great friend- 
ship with her, notwithstanding the fact that she is no longer 
young, and that white locks have taken the place of her golden 
curls. She is an American, the daughter of that Colonel 
Burdan who invented the rifle which still bears his name. 
She had married a French diplomat, the Comte d'Aunay, and 
was noted in her youth for her extraordinary loveliness 
Mme. d'Aunay was ambitious above everything, and her great 
dream was to see her husband become an Ambassador. She 
imagined that M. Clemenceau could help her to realise her 
one ambition, and she then set herself to win his friendship 
for herself and for her husband. The task was easy enough 
for a woman gifted with such beauty and such remarkable 
intelligence, and though the world chatted not a little — as 
so often it does without foundation — concerning this friend- 
ship, yet secretly it envied her for her cleverness in having 
won him as a well-wisher. Then one day came the crash 
and the blighting of the fair Countess's hopes. The French 
Ministry for Foreign Affairs became alarmed at the marvellous 
way in which M. Clemenceau was kept informed of what was 
going on in diplomatic circles at Copenhagen, where Count 
d'Aunay was accredited as French Minister, and wondered 
how he could be in possession of the most secret information 
before even it became known at the Quai d'Orsay. Inquiries 

310 



Presidency of M. Loubet 

were instituted which resulted in the resignation of certain 
parties. 

It was partly Mme. d'Aunay who was responsible for the 
English sympathies of M. Clemenceau ; she had lived in London 
for a long time, had made many good friends, and also won 
still more admirers. She was ambitious to have her husband 
appointed to the British capital as Ambassador for the French 
Republic, and she did her best to persuade M. Clemenceau to 
set his back against the Russian alliance. 

The great Radical leader did not ask anything else, but he 
was very well aware that to go against the popular feehng was 
quite useless and hopeless, and might even cause his own 
patriotism to be suspected. But he knew also that French 
people are apt to lose their illusions as quickly as they come 
under their influence, and so he quietly waited for the course 
of events to justify the words of warning he had uttered to 
the few friends before whom he could talk quite openly. 

When he favoured the candidature of M. Loubet to the 
Chief Magistracy of the Republic, he had his plan quite ready, 
together with a programme which included an alliance with 
England and a rupture with the Vatican. Papal influence he 
dreaded the more in that he knew that in Pope Leo XIII. he had 
an opponent just as shrewd as he was himself, one who would 
consent to the greatest sacrifices in order to keep upon good 
terms with the Republic. To this last the Radical party was 
not at all agreeable, and consequently it was indispensable 
that he should assure himself of the sympathies of the President, 
whoever he might be, in order not to be thwarted secretly in 
his designs as earlier he had been by M. Felix Faure, whose 
policy had been far more personal than the world was 
permitted to guess. 

I happened to be at Versailles on the day of the election 
of M. Loubet. An hour before the result became known bets 

311 



France from Behind the Veil 

were still being taken concerning the chances he had to be 
elected. M. Roiivior was distinctly favoured, and probabilities 
pointed to M. Brisson making a close run. I was lunching 
at the Hotel des Reservoirs with some friends, of whom 
Henri Rochefort was one, when suddenly M. Clemenceau 
came by. He was instantly surrounded by a group of journalists 
eager to hear his opinion as to who would win. He laughingly 
parried their questions, saying that the only thing he was 
sine of was that Clemenceau would not be President of the 
Republic, to which Rochefort remarked in an undertone that 
he would not need to be, as it would be his candidate who 
would occupy that post. 

M. Loubet was elected, and at once the Dreyfus affair took 
a new turn. After a struggle, in which the government 
yielded almost without fighting, the unfortunate captain 
was brought back to France, and his re-trial took place at 
Rennes, with the result known to everybody, and for which 
M. Clemenceau deserves the thanks of his compatriots as well 
as of posterity, because anything more iniquitous than this 
affair has never disgraced a country. 

Most emphatically of all the politicians who were prominent 
in France at the time of the election of M. Loubet, M. Clemen- 
ceau was the shrewdest and also the most far-seeing. He 
had perceived that even had Captain Dreyfus been guilty, it 
would be to the advantage of France for him to be declared 
innocent, and also that so long as that bone of contention was 
left to the enemies of the Republic, they would expend all 
their efforts in using it as a weapon to discredit not only the 
form of government they disliked, but also to shame France 
herself. 

One cannot say that the Elysee improved as regarded its 
inner life under the Presidency of M. Loubet. The pomp and 
grandeur introduced by M. Felix Faure were reduced to a 

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Presidency of M. Loubet 

minimum, and existence began to resemble the one led by 
M. and Mme. Jules Grevy, with perhaps a shade more elegance, 
but without any luxury, save what was absolutely necessary. 
Madame Loubet rarely went out in anything else but a modest 
brougham drawn by one horse, and she avoided everything 
that could be construed as love of ostentation or luxury. On 
the other hand, she was extremely charitable, and, with the 
exception of the Marechale MacMahon, no wife of a President 
of the Repubhc did more for the welfare of the poor of Paris, 
and by them she was literally worshipped. She was totally 
devoid of affectation, and never tried to pose for what she was 
not, or to play at being the great lady by birth as well as 
by position. Everyone liked and respected her. Such was 
not the case with M. Loubet, in whom some people saw a 
nonentity and others merely a puppet in the hands of M. 
Clemenceau and his friends. 

During his tenure of office the new President paid several 
visits abroad, among others to St. Petersburg, London, and 
Rome. With the exception of the one to London, it cannot 
be said that his journeys were successful. In Russia people 
were getting just a little tired of the perpetual ovations which 
had been allowed to take place in favour of France and the 
French alliance. The Japanese question was already engrossing 
the public mind, and it was vaguely felt in the country, what- 
ever one may have thought at the Foreign Office, that some- 
how France had failed in her friendship for her ally of the 
other day in the Far East, and had not sufficiently upheld her 
pretensions in the many entangled questions which had sprung 
up in consequence of the fatal policy of Admiral Alexieff and 
his friends. 

The entire misunderstanding which had prevailed at 
the demonstrative Franco-Russian alliance was becoming 
more apparent every day ; essentially it had been based on 

313 



France from Behind the Veil 

the desire of each of the signatories to get as much as possible 
out of the other. France had fully expected that she would 
be given the opportunity of recovering Alsace and Lorraine, 
and Russia had only seen the possibility of borrowing, under 
favourable conditions, the money she wanted. As time 
had gone by Russia had found out that French bankers were 
just as exacting as were German bankers, while France had 
discovered that her interests were dear to Russia only inso- 
much as they did not clash or interfere with her own. A 
certain coolness had sprung up between them, though in 
Paris as well as in St. Petersburg politicians and journalists 
were eagerly seizing every opportunity to declare that the 
alliance was stronger than ever. 

Under those circumstances the journey of M. Loubet to 
St. Petersburg might have been pleasant, but could not have 
been very useful. In London it was different. He found 
there many sympathisers and well-wishers who were only 
too desirous of accentuating the good relations of France 
with Great Britain. To begin with King Edward and to end 
with the man in the street, they all vied with each other 
to show the greatest cordiality to the President and to make 
him welcome in the fullest sense of the word. When 
M. Loubet returned to Paris he could say with pride and 
satisfaction that the old rivalries which had divided the two 
countries had been buried under the flowers which had orna- 
mented the dining-table in the Waterloo Hall of Windsor 
Castle. 

The Roman trip of the President, though conducted on 
simpler lines than those of his English journey, was perhaps 
the most important event of M. Loubet's septenary. It dis- 
tinctly proclaimed the attitude which the French Government 
meant to adopt in regard to the rehgious question and to its 
relations with the Vatican. The guest of the Itahan King 

314 



Presidency of M. Loubet 

at the Quirinal, M. Loubet did not think it necessary to follow 
the example set by all the other foreign monarchs who visited 
Rome by going from the house of the Ambassador to the 
Holy See, as a neutral place, to visit the Pope at the Vatican. 
The courtesy paid to the head of the Roman Catholic Church 
by the German Crown Prince, and later on by the German 
Emperor, was deemed to be beneath the dignity of the President 
of the French Republic ; and when the government was asked 
in the Chamber what M. Loubet meant to do in regard to 
this question of a visit to the Pope, it replied that it had been 
decided that the President should refrain. 

Soon after this relations were entirely suspended between 
the Holy See and the French Republic, and the separation 
between Church and State became an accomplished fact. 
M. Loubet had not failed in the confidence which M. Clemen- 
ceau and the Radical party had reposed in him. 

/The principal feature of this septenary of a gentle and 
yielding little bourgeois was the estabhshing of the regular 
and automatic change of Presidents — a rule which gave to 
the Republic a stability which hitherto it had been wanting. 
M. Thiers had been overturned ; Marshal MacMahon and 
M. Grevy had been obliged to resign ; M. Carnot had been 
murdered, and M. Faure had died suddenly, whilst M. Casimir 
P6rier had grown impatient at the restraint to which he found 
his faculties subjected. It was only dating from M. Loubet 
that the transmission of the supreme power became an accom- 
plished fact, and that at last the Republic, as well as a Monarchy, 
had its Sovereigns whose reign was followed by that of their 
duly elected successors, j 

During his Presidency, too, the components of Paris society 
changed considerably. New salons sprang up which aspired 
to replace the older ones, and in a certain sense they succeeded 
in doing so. The bourgeoisie which Loubet represented so 

315 



France from Behind the Veil 

well came to the front, and the newspapers, which hitherto 
had carefully noted the sayings and doings of the Duchess 
of So-and-So and the Countess of So-and-So, began to chronicle 
those of Madame Menard Dorian or of Madame Alphonse 
Daudet, or of the wives and daughters of members and 
supporters of the government. Thus a new society began to 
play its part in Parisian social life, and soon entirely pervaded 
it. Financial houses, too, opened wide their doors to all who 
cared to enter, and whilst formerly the Rothschilds had been 
almost the only bankers with whom the old FrenchTnobility 
had cared to associate, dozens of Jews now invaded 
Parisian society. The distinction which used to exist 
formerly between the noblesse and what it had called dis- 
dainfully " les roturiers " had entirely disappeared under the 
glamour which millions always exert over the imagination of 
the crowds. It was felt that money was the principal thing 
required, and under this influence the Hebrew and the American 
element had a fine time of it. 

It is impossible to write anything about Parisian society 
nowadays without saying something concerning M. de Castel- 
lane. For a few brief years he incarnated in his person the 
acme of French elegance, and was the fleur des pois of all the 
smart clubs of Paris. He was a terrible little fop who aspired 
only to one thing : to be the most talked-about man of liis 
generation. WTien he married Miss Gould, he fondly imagined 
that this marriage gave him the right to do everything he 
liked, down to ill-treating his wife. He began buying right 
and left everything that caught his fancy, and built for him- 
self a palace after the model of the Petit Trianon ; he made 
Paris ring with his extravagances, and pretended to assume the 
part of the one supreme leader of society. Even the many 
millions which his mfe had brought to him proved insufficient ; 
and very soon his horses, his vagaries, his losses at cards, 

316 



Presidency of M. Loubet 

and his general behaviour brought about a financial catastrophe, 
which was the prelude to a conjugal one. Mme. de Castellane 
became tired of being outraged at every step, and sued for 
a divorce, which was easily awarded to her. 

Anyone in de Castellane' s place would have resigned himself 
to the inevitable, but instead, he threatened to take the 
children from her. Madame de Castellane behaved nobly on 
this trying occasion. She might easily have retaliated, and she 
had got plenty of proofs which she could have produced that 
would have for ever compromised the Comte de Castellane 
and other people with him. She never made use of that power, 
and as her advocate, M. Albert Clemenceau — the brother 
of M. Georges Clemenceau — eloquently said : " My client 
has her hands full, but she disdains to open them in order to 
harm the man who, after all, is the father of her children ! " 

The Countess came out of this painful ordeal with flying 
colours. Her children were left in her charge, notwithstanding 
all the efforts of M. de Castellane. Soon after her divorce 
was pronounced she married a cousin of her former husband, 
the Due de Talleyrand, the son of the famous Prince de Sagan. 
The couple lead a very quiet life in the palace erected by Count 
Boni, and at the Chateau de Marais, a splendid property 
which they possess not far from Paris. The Faubourg St. 
Germain, not approving of divorces, has turned the cold 
shoulder upon them, which fact does not trouble them much. 
They are happy in themselves, and the Duchess must often 
congratulate herself on her moral courage, of which she gave 
proof when she decided to seek her freedom from an ill-assorted 
union which had brought to her nothing but unhappiness and 
sorrow. As for M, de Castellane, he vegetates in an obscurity 
which must be doubly painful to him when he remembers 
the luxury in which he spent a few short years, and which 
he lost through his own vanity and stupidity. 

317 



CHAPTER XXVII 

The Dreyfus Affair 

When Paris at first began talking about the high treason of 
Captain Dreyfus, people did not take much notice ; it seemed 
to be but one of many such. The public was more or less 
used to events of the kind, and did not give them more than 
a passing thought. I happened, however, to know some 
friends of the Dreyfus family, and, calling on one of them, 
I was not very much surprised to hear him declare that the 
Captain was innocent — the victim of an intrigue. Such 
language was perfectly natural on the part of relatives of 
the accused man, but these denials were also accompanied 
by several details which gave them more importance than, 
under different conditions, would have been legitimate. 

For the first time I heard the name of Colonel Esterhazy 
as one who could have said a lot concerning this intricate 
affair had he cared to do so, and the impression left upon 
my mind by the conversation which I had on that day was 
strong enough to inspire me with the desire to be present at 
the coming trial. Consequently, I requested and, after 
difficulty, obtained from the War Office permission to be 
present. 

I had never seen Captain Dreyfus before the day when 
I beheld him sitting in the dock listening to the evidence on 
the strength of which he was to be sent to the Devil's Island 
for five long years. I must say that his appearance did not 
draw out the sympathy of any onlooker who did not give him- 

318 



The Dreyfus Affair 

self the trouble to watch his countenance attentively. In- 
deed, had his appearance been more prepossessing, he would 
perhaps have met with more indulgence than was the case. 
But in the whole of my long life I have never seen a man with 
more strength of character and more power to keep his personal 
emotions under control. Not a muscle of his face moved 
during the time that witness after witness spoke of his pre- 
sumed guilt ; his eyes never fired up, even when he heard 
himself accused of a crime that he had never committed. 
The only words he spoke were uttered in a low tone, in which 
weariness more than anything else was apparent, and he never 
said anything else but the phrase, " Je suis innocent." 

And yet it was impossible to look at him and not to realise 
that this indifferent man, whom nothing seemed to move, 
who had not even the strength to protest indignantly against 
the accusation hurled at him, was enduring a perfect 
martyrdom ; that his apparent calmness was the calmness 
of despair. He knew too well that he could not prove his 
innocence, that he had been made the victim of other people's 
guilt, and that he was being crushed by the wheels of a 
Juggernaut, moved along by an inexorable fate. Once 
he started, and that was when sentence was pronounced 
against him, and when the words, " degradation militaire," 
resounded in the room. A feeling of revolt appeared to 
shake him, and he made a gesture as if he wanted to rush 
forward ; but it lasted only a second, and then he lapsed 
into his usual apathy, as if he had understood that his protest 
would only have added to the bitter feelings of revenge which 
the public manifested against him. 

After judgment had been pronounced I had the oppor- 
tunity of speaking to one of those who had given the verdict. 
I asked him whether he really believed in the Captain's guilt. 
The officer shrugged his shoulders and replied : " It is difficult 

319 



France from Behind the Veil 

to say. Treason has taken place ; and, after all, it is better 
to assert that a Jew has been guilty than to fix it on a French- 
man." 

It seemed to me that these words gave the key to the under- 
currents of r affaire. Dreyfus. Some people, whether sincerely 
or otherwise, believed that treason had been committed, 
and finding that it became incumbent to hx it on someone, 
preferred to take a Jew as a victim than one of their own 
brethren in race and faith. 

At the time the affair began anti-Semitism was already 
very powerful in France. 

Drumont had published his famous books, each rendered 
so stupid in one sense by the pertinacity with which he called 
a Jew QYQTy person whom he thought he had a reason for 
disliking ; and so dangerous in another sense, by the way 
in which he appealed to all the evil instincts of the mob, and 
urged it io rise against people whose only guilt consisted in 
being rich. 

The Clerical party especially did all that was in its power 
to fan the hatred against Jews, which had always existed in 
a greater or lesser degree. It accused them of inspiring all 
the anti-Clerical measures adopted by the various govern- 
ments which had succeeded one another in the country. Also, 
it was foolish enough to seize the pretext of the Dreyfus affair 
to associate anti-Semitism \\ith the question of the Captain's 
guilt or innocence, and thereby to excite public opinion against 
the Jews in general, more even than against the Captain 
himself. 

On the other hand, the Radical party, which was gaining 
adherents every day, was delighted to be able to secure the 
support of the Jews in its struggle against Clericalism. They, 
therefore, hastened to accuse the Clericals of trying to prove 
the Captain guilty in order to be able to trace some association 

.^20 



The Dreyfus Affair 

between his supposed guilt and the actions of the numerous 
rich Hebrews in France. 

It has been said that at the beginning of the campaign 
which was started in favour of Dreyfus, when someone asked 
M. Clemenceau what he thought about the whole affair, the 
Radical leader replied that he did not know yet what there 
was in it, but that he saw it could become an admirable weapon 
in the hands of the different political parties which existed 
in France. 

That weapon no one better understood how to use than 
he did. His great ambition had always been to become 
Prime Minister, if not President, of France, but so far he 
had not seen any possibility of realising his dream. The 
Dreyfus affair gave him the opportunity he sought, and he 
was not the man to allow it to slip. 

He engineered the whole campaign begun by M. Scheurer 
Kestner, when he proclaimed aloud that he had obtained the 
proofs of the innocence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus ; he encour- 
aged M. Zola to write his famous letter, " I accuse " ; he gave 
all the benefit of his experience to those whom he sent fighting 
for the cause which he considered to be more his than anyone 
else's, and in the end he reaped the reward of his unremitting 
zeal. To the Dreyfus case he owed finally the Premiership 
of France, a post which he had coveted all his life, and on 
the wave of this affair he would have been elected President 
of the Republic had he not found an adversary of import- 
ance in M. Briand, whom he himself had helped to come to 
the front without suspecting that he could become his rival. 

A curious feature in the Dreyfus campaign was the celerity 
with which it became a personal matter with those who took 
part in it. One and all sought in its intricacies their own 
advantage more than anything else, and the Captain was 
very soon forgotten. Having been the pretext for furthering 

V 'iZI 



France from Behind the Veil 

innumerable personal ambitions, he was scarcely remembered 
whilst the fight for his rehabilitation lasted. 

As an instance of what I have just said, I will relate an 
amusing incident. After the trial at Rennes, and when it 
became known that President Loubet had pardoned Dreyfus, 

I was dining one evening with a lady, Madame de , whose 

salon had been one of the strongholds of the Dreyfusards. 
Of course, the affair was discussed. Someone remarked that 
it was a pity that the accused man had not been acquitted, 
as it would have put an end to the whole sad and, in many 
points, sordid business, whereon our hostess exclaimed, " Oh, 
no, it is not a pity ; fancy how sad it would be if we had 
not a pretext for carrying it farther ! " 

This hasty retort, which I am sure Madame de re- 
gretted later on, represented the opinion of most of the partisans 
of Dreyfus; they forgot entirely the personal feelings of the 
victim of this injustice of political passion, and only sought 
in the agitation the furtherance of their own schemes and 
intrigues. 

This Dreyfus campaign completely hypnotised every 
person who was drawn into its intricacies. Towards its close, 
I do not think that even among the principal actors of the 
drama one could have found one man or woman who really 
understood it, or who could speak of it without allowing their 
personal interest to interfere with the opinions held. 

As for the real circumstances attending this curious episode 
in the history of modern France, I do not think that they 
will ever be known. It is certain that among some of the 
adversaries of Dreyfus there were several sincere people who 
believed that he was guilty. There were also others, quite as 
earnest, who professed the erroneous conviction, that once 
a mistake had been made this mistake ought not, for the 
honour of the army and for that of its generals, to be admitted. 

322 



The Dreyfus Affair 

Of course, this was a point of view which could never be 
accepted by anyone calling himself honest, but, in a certain 
sense, it can be understood though never excused. 

Only the severest condemnation can be given to the means 
by which it was endeavoured to prove Dreyfus guilty, the 
hideous way in which each one among all those upon whom 
his fate depended not only refused to acknowledge error, 
but, on the contrary, tried everything that could be thought 
of in order to uphold the false theories as to his guilt. 

During the time that the agitation for the new trial lasted, 
I had more than one opportunity of discussing the innocence of 
Dreyfus with several officers holding high commands, and I 
was horrified to observe the cynical way in which they tried to 
explain to me that it was indispensable that the decision of 
the Paris court-martial should be confirmed. When 1 asked 
them why, they always replied the same thing : " Les arrets 
d'un conseil de guerre, ne peuvent etre critiques, cela leur 
enleverait toute autorite sur Farmee dans I'avenir." (" The 
decisions of a court-martial can never be criticised ; it would 
deprive them of all their authority over the army in the 
future.") 

I have never been able to make them understand that, 
however important the evidence, a court-martial can be 
mistaken just as well as other people. 

Another remarkable side of the Dreyfus agitation is the 
rapid way in which it subsided and was forgotten, as soon as 
the Captain was rehabilitated, and granted the Cross of the 
Legion of Honour as a reward for his long sufferings. With 
the exception of a few people, such as Madame Zola and her 
immediate friends, all those who had taken a leading part in 
the struggle did everything that they could to induce the 
world to forget, M. Clemenceau himself was the prime mover 
in the general desire to consign to oblivion this episode in the 

323 



France from Behind the Veil 

political life of the day. The latter, when he became Prime 
Minister, buried Zola in the Pantheon. The event was the 
occasion of a new misfortune for the ill-starred Captain 
Dreyfus, inasmuch as a Royalist and Clerical partisan seized 
this opportunity to fire at him a shot which slightly wounded 
him. The incident nearly gave rise to a panic among the 
assistants, who thought that a bomb had been thrown at 
President Fallieres and the members of the government who 
were present at the ceremony. 

Having paid this last homage to the writer who had lent the 
help of his powerful pen to the cause which he had so ardently 
championed, M. Clemenceau hastened to hide in the tomb 
of Zola every remembrance of the Dreyfus affair, although 
by it he had realised his every ambition. It had given him 
a popularity among French politicians of his generation which 
earlier he had been unable to obtain ; it had posed him before 
the world as something more than a clever man (which reputa- 
tion he bore) — as a real statesman, able to treat on a footing 
of equality the statesmen of Europe — and it had paved his 
way to the Presidency of the Republic, that goal of his ambi- 
tions. Now all his desire was to drive away from the mind 
of the public the memory of the political campaign in which 
he had taken such a prominent part. 

After burying in the Pantheon the mortal remains of the 
great author whom he had succeeded in persuading that it 
was his duty to protest in the name of France against the 
iniquity that had sent Captain Dreyfus in exile to Devil's 
Island, M. Clemenceau considered himself free from further 
obligations toward those who had been associated with him 
in the task of bringing Captain Dreyfus back to France, and 
restoring him to his family. He saw no reason to continue 
to meet them, and when Emile Zola's daughter married one 
of his former secretaries, he refrained from assisting at the 

324 



The Dreyfus Affair 

ceremony under the plea of ill-health, an excuse which appeared 
to be the more out of place seeing that it was announced in 
the papers that on that very day he had gone into the country 
for the shooting. The Prime Minister did not care that the 
world should think he remained faithful to those associations 
which had had for their only excuse the political necessities 
of the moment. 

M. Clemenceau was one of many persons who had seen in 
the Dreyfus affair the possibility of becoming either famous or 
powerful through the energy with which they defended his 
cause. Many of the minor satellites had looked to it in order 
to emerge from the obscurity in which they would otherwise 
have remained to the end of their days. There was hardly a 
journalist in Paris who did not try to pose either as a 
Dreyfusard or the reverse ; they became ferocious in their 
attacks according as their professed opinions differed. Every- 
thing which until that time had been considered sacred in 
France was dragged in the mire and became dirtier every day. 
Priests forgot their sacred character ; soldiers did not remember 
the honour of their flag ; politicians renounced the creeds 
in which they had believed ; respect disappeared from the 
hearts of men and from the actions of the nation. One can 
say that France came out of this tragedy dishonoured before 
the world — diminished in her own eyes. 

But Radicalism grew stronger during the struggle which 
waged between the friends and the adversaries of Dreyfus, 
and certainly it was owing to this struggle that anti-militarism 
became so prominent in France. It was this episode which 
taught the nation to despise the army and to rise against 
its discipline. From this point of view the campaign in favour 
of Captain Dreyfus did much harm to France, but from the 
moral viewpoint it is impossible not to admire the feeling of 
indignation which roused so many people against the in- 

325 



France from Behind the Veil 

justice of a few. It is only a pity that this indignation was 
so often but the mask under which lurked ambitions that 
had nothing to do with the desire to see Captain Dreyfus 
righted. 

Among all the people who were the actors in this drama, 
there are some whom it is impossible to pass by. One of them 
is Colonel Esterhazy, that dark figure who from accuser 
became the defender of his colleague, who certainly knew more 
about the hidden currents of the whole affair than anyone else, 
and who never spoke the truth about it, even when he turned 
upon his former superiors, perhaps because this truth would 
have been even more shameful for him than for those who 
had employed him. 

I had occasion to meet Esterhazy before the disgrace 
which overwhelmed him after the Dreyfus trial. There was 
a time when he had been a dashing cavalry officer, much sought 
after in the most elegant of the many elegant salons of Paris. 
I had seen him at the Tuileries, dancing vis-d-vis with the 
fair Empress who reigned there, and later on I had the oppor- 
tunity of watching him in several houses where we were both 
frequent visitors. He was an amiable man, full of wit, and 
exceedingly amusing in his conversation. As for his moral 
worth, no one troubled about it at that period, and though 
from time to time scandal of some sort became associated 
with his name, no one could have believed him capable 
of the dark deeds which later on stamped him with such a 
stigma of shame and unscrupulousness. 

And yet, a man who certainly was one of the most observant 
of his generation, Jules Ferry, who was not destined to see 
all the episodes which have rendered the Dreyfus affair so 
memorable, meeting Esterhazy one evening, expressed to me, 
as we were going out together from the hospitable house where 
we had dined, the profound distrust with which the brilliant 

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The Dreyfus Affair 

officer inspired him. " C'est un homme capable de tout," 
he told me, and when I asked him what reasons he had for 
proffering such a severe judgment on a man he did not know 
except superficially — " Look at his hands," he said, " ce sont 
les mains d'un brigand." Later, when I saw Esterhazy 
during the Zola trial, I remembered these words, and glanced 
at the hands of the Colonel as he was giving evidence at the 
bar ; they were repulsive in their shape, and certainly gave 
one the impression of being the hands of a brigand. 

Esterhazy was the saddest of all the sad heroes of the 
Dreyfus affair, because the other sad actor in the drama. 
Colonel Henry, had at least the courage to seek in death the 
expiation of his crime. There has been much talk about his 
suicide, and some people have expressed a doubt concerning it, 
suggesting that it had been simulated, and that the Colonel had 
simply been put out of the way, as he might have become 
rather an embarrassing witness. I hasten to say that I do 
not believe in this version. Colonel Henry was a soldier, 
more imbued with military discipline than Esterhazy ; he would 
not have been able to face the shame of a public trial, and 
his soldier's soul would not have found the courage to accuse 
those who had had the right to order him to do the deed for 
which he was to lose his life, and his honour after death. 

When I say so, it is on the authority of another soldier 
who also had had to do with the question of the guilt or 
innocence of Captain Dreyfus, General de Pellieux. It was he 
who had read during the debates of the Zola trial, when the 
great writer had been sent before a jury to answer to the 
accusation of having published his famous letter, " I accuse," 
the false document manufactured by Henry. It is impossible 
to deny that the General had done so in the full conviction 
that it was decisive and would make the whole world share 
his own persuasion as to the guilt of Dreyfus. When, 

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France from Behind the Veil 

later on, M. Cavaignac, who presided at the War Office, had 
the loyalty to declare publicly that this document was nothing 
but a forgery, made for the purpose of preventing the revision 
of the trial of the unfortunate prisoner on Devil's Island, 
General de Peliieux was inconsolable. His grief was that 
anyone could believe he had wanted to crush Dreyfus with 
the weight of an accusation which he had known to be false, 
and it was whilst discussing with me later on all the details 
of this unfortunate episode in his life that he told me his 
opinion about Colonel Henry, adding that he had not the 
slightest doubt as to the suicide of the unfortunate officer. 

Another rather strange feature of the Dreyfus affair was 
the advantages which it procured to all the enemies of the 
Clerical party. Unfortunately for the Cathohcs and Legitimists 
in France, they took up the most intransigent attitude in the 
question. They identified it with the Catholic Church, and 
with its interests, and they thought to find in it the pretext 
for a crusade against the Jews and the Republicans, declaring 
publicly that it was only under a Radical government, pro- 
tecting the Israelites, that such an event as the so-called 
treason of Captain Dreyfus could have taken place. And 
among all the enemies of Dreyfus, none was more ardent 
than Pere du Lac, the famous Jesuit, in whom the Republicans 
found their greatest and one of their most powerful adver- 
saries. Another thing which must never be lost sight of when 
talking about the Dreyfus affair is that no one among all his 
defenders ever gave a thought to Dreyfus himself. The 
feelings and sufferings of the unfortunate man were always 
talked of, but those who continually harped upon them would 
have been extremely sorry had the government decided to 
treat him well, or to forgive him for his supposed crime. 
And one cannot understand how among all the ministers who 
were in power in France during the years which he spent in 

328 



The Dreyfus Affair 

disgrace, not one tried to put an end to the agitation by in- 
augurating the re-trial which was to prove his innocence. 

I make no excuse for again calling attention to this fact, 
for I perceive that I am doing exactly the same thing myself ; 
that, by talking about the Dreyfus affair, I forget entirely its 
hero, who deserves certainly more than a passing mention. 
I learned to know the Captain well after his return to France, 
and I learned, also, to respect and esteem him. Any man in 
his place would have harboured feelings of the most bitter 
resentment against those to whom he had owed such terrible 
sufferings. Dreyfus never once allowed an expression of 
anger to escape his lips. He did not care to talk about the 
years of his trial, but when he was forced to do so it was 
always in most measured terms, and without the slightest 
shade of a revengeful spirit. He once told me that, as a soldier, 
he could understand the feelings of those other soldiers who 
had believed him capable of betraying his country, but he 
thought that had he been in the place of his accusers, he would 
have taken greater care to verify the accusation against a 
brother in arms than had been done in his case. But whilst 
eager to see justice done to himself, he never approved of 
the means that some people used in order to bring this about. 
Dreyfus aspired only to one thing, and that was to be left in 
peace. He accepted the rehabilitation which was granted 
to him, but in his innermost heart he regretted rather than 
otherwise that he had to occupy once more the attention 
of the world. Captain Dreyfus was always modest and retiring 
in his disposition and character ; it was just as painful to him 
to be praised as to be blamed. 

To tell the truth, he returned from his exile a man of broken 
physique with shattered nerve, and had he been able to do 
what he liked, he would have retired somewhere in the country, 
far from the madding crowd, which had in turns hissed and 

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France from Behind the Veil 

applauded him. He felt deeply grateful to all those who had 
worked for his release, but it was painful to him to have to 
see them, to mingle once more among the world whose injustice 
he had never forgotten. 

Captain Dreyfus had an admirable wife, whose devotion 
has not been sufficiently appreciated by the public. She 
behaved heroically towards him, the more so that she was 
not very happy with him before the catastrophe that separated 
them for a while. 

Just before the Captain was arrested, his wife had applied 
for a divorce from him ; but when she heard him accused, 
she immediately put an end to the proceedings and devoted 
herself entirely to the task of his rehabilitation, sparing 
neither her health, nor her efforts, nor her money in order 
to obtain it. 

When he arrived at Rennes, she had only one thought, 
and that was to throw herself into his arms. Now the couple 
live a most happy life, but though Madame Dreyfus has entirely 
forgotten that in regard to her husband she performed more 
than her duty, he always remembers it, and nothing could be 
more touching than to witness the reverence with which he 
approaches her, or speaks about her. For once the absolute 
devotion and sacrifice of a noble woman met with gratitude, 
and was not in vain. 

In general all the family of Captain Dreyfus has stood 
by him, with a loyalty beyond praise. Mathieu Dreyfus, his 
brother, did not allow the slightest opportunity to escape 
by which he could defend the accused man. He worked at 
it with a patience and an energy worthy of the highest com- 
mendation, and never allowed himself to be discouraged 
in his efforts. It was he, also, who uttered the best definition 
of his brother's case. When asked once whether he did not 
feel happy in the knowledge that such a powerful party (to 



The Dreyfus Affair 

which belonged the most distinguished men in France) had 
taken up the cause of Captain Dreyfus, he replied that, of 
course, he could not but feel flattered by it, but that perhaps 
his brother would have obtained the justice which was due 
to him sooner, if it had not been to the interest of so many 
people to drag his case out as long as possible, in order to 
reap personal advantages from it which they would never 
have obtained without the opportunity which he had given 
to them, at the cost of so much suffering and so much unneces- 
sarily borne shame. 



331 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

Parisian Salons under the Third Republic 

Madame de Caillavet's salon was certainly one of the most 
influential among political and literary men of the Third 
Republic. She was one of the leading women of that period, 
was moreover an excellent hostess, and, thanks to the 
continual presence of Anatole France in her house, she suc- 
ceeded in attracting many notables to her salon. Journalists 
composed the majority of her visitors, and diplomats occasion- 
ally came to hear the last news of the day, especially whilst 
the Dreyfus agitation lasted. Dramatists were always to 
be found at her receptions, colleagues of her son Gaston 
de Caillavet, the author of so many amusing comedies, whose 
collaborator, the Marquis de Flers, the husband of Sardou's 
daughter, was also among the number of people who seldom 
missed these friendly gatherings. But in spite of this, and 
notwithstanding the number of clever men and pretty and 
amiable women who clustered around her, to the eyes of a 
keen observer there was always something Bohemian about 
her receptions. It was not the salon of a grande dame, and 
it was no longer that of a bourgeoise of olden times : it was 
essentially modern, like the RepubHc itself. 

Far different from it was the house of Madame Menard 
Dorian, also one of the feminine stars of the Republic. Madame 
Dorian was a charming woman, who had received an ex- 
cellent education, and who, coming as she did from an old 
bourgeois stock, never pretended to be aught else than what 

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Salons of the Republic 

she was by birth. She was extremely intelligent, very broad 
in her opinions, and with many advanced ideas in regard to 
religion and politics ; above everything else, she was a lady 
in her manners, her general behaviour, and her tastes. Very 
rich, she possessed a lovely house in the Rue de la Faisanderie, 
which she had furnished with extreme taste and where she 
used to give receptions as sumptuous as they were pleasant. 

There one could meet, together with some of those who 
frequented the salon of Madame de Caillavet and other 
Republican hostesses of the same kind, persons belonging 
to other classes, and forming part of the aristocratic circle 
of Paris. Academicians frequented it, and diplomatists were 
generally eager to be introduced to Madame Menard Dorian, 
where they ran no risk of meeting people they would not have 
cared to become acquainted with, and where they could, on 
the other hand, get an idea as to what was going on in Re- 
publican circles. Madame Dorian had been a Dreyfusard, 
but she had been so moderately and in a ladylike way. Her 
salon was something like the one of Madame Geoffrin in the 
eighteenth century, with the exception that no one would 
have dared to say about it what the Marquise du Deffand 
had told of the former, that it was " une omelette au lard." 
One gosgiped in it, in a mild way, and became interested in 
the literary movement of the day, perhaps even more than in 
the political one. 

M. Menard Dorian used to put in an appearance at his 
wife's receptions now and then, when he was not too busy 
to do so. He was a quiet, pleasant little man, liked by every- 
body^ and especially by ladies, who always found him most 
polite and amiable to them. An evening party or dinner 
given in the Hotel de la Rue de la Faisanderie was always 
sure to be a meeting place for intelligent and clever people, 
and no one who had once been asked ever regretted it, but 

333 



France from Behind the Veil 

on the contrary was always most eager for the invitation to 
be repeated, 

M. Menard Dorian is now dead, and his widow only sees 
her friends occasionally, and in a quiet fashion, having re- 
frained from opening again the hospitable doors of her house 
so freely as in former years. But she has remained the same 
amiable woman she always was, and certainly among the 
Republican ladies of the present day she deserves to rank 
first. She would have graced the Court of any European 
monarch. 

Madame Dorian had one daughter who had been married 
to Georges Hugo, the grandson of Victor Hugo. That marriage 
ended in a catastrophe and a divorce, after which the young 
Hugo married the first cousin of Mademoiselle Dorian, who 
had attracted his fancy one morning when he had met her 
at his mother-in-law's, together with her husband, the sculptor 
A j albert. 

The daughter of the charming Madame Dorian had a 
curious personality ; she seemed to take a vicious pleasure 
in thwarting her parents, and making herself disagreeable 
to them whenever she found the opportunity. She occupied 
a flat in their house, the Hotel de la Rue de la Faisanderie, 
and on the evenings when her father and mother gave recep- 
tions at which the partisans of Captain Dreyfus, such as 
Colonel, later on General, Picquart, the Zolas, and their circle 
of friends were honoured guests, Madame Hugo used to invite 
people such as Drumont and the strongest anti-Semites of 
Paris, so that several times queer situations arose, and the 
staunchest Dreyfusards entered by mistake the apartment 
of one of their worst enemies, whilst one evening Henri Roche- 
fort himself, who for the world would not be seen at Madame 
Menard Dorian's, was ushered into her drawing-room by a 
footman who did not know him by sight. 

o o ^ 



Salons of the Republic 

That sort of thing, however, could not go on for any 
length of time, and when Pauline Hugo left the house of her 
parents, her departure was a relief to them. But even after 
her marriage to Herman Paul, after her divorce and Paul's, 
she did not become reconciled to her father and mother. 

Georges Hugo's sister, Jeanne, was also a strange kind 
of person. She married when quite young, Leon Daudet, 
the son of Alphonse Daudet, and very soon ran away from 
him with the explorer Charcot. It was said that Daudet 
was delighted when he divorced her, as they had scarcely 
been a single day without quarrelling since they married, 
and, although a fervent Catholic, he hastened to take to him- 
self another wife. 

The mother of Leon Daudet, Madame Alphonse Daudet, 
is also a celebrity in her way, and gives receptions at which 
the best society of Paris can be met. She has entirely re- 
nounced her bourgeois origin, and only talks of Dukes and 
Duchesses. She labels herself a Clerical by conviction and 
a Royalist by sympathy, and frequents the houses of great 
ladies, such as the Duchesse de Rohan or the Comtesse Mathieu 
de Noailles. Her second son, Lucien Daudet is a devoted 
admirer of the Empress Eugenie. Among Republican hostesses 
I haven't yet mentioned Madame Psichari, the daughter of 
Ernest Renan. She has inherited the intelligence and the 
art of conversation of her father, and is one of the most dis- 
tinguished women of modern France. At her house can be 
met most of the members of the French Academy, and nearly 
all the prominent literary men in Paris. Her receptions are 
perhaps a shade dull, and more or less solemn, but always 
instructive and always interesting. Her personality was 
always singularly attractive, and inspired great respect, because 
her errors of judgment when they occurred were always 
sincere. 

335 



France from Behind the Veil 

Madame Psichari was one of the victims of the divorce 
mania that has lately taken hold of Parisian society, and, to 
the great astonishment of her numerous friends, after more 
than thirty years' matrimony she applied for a decree. She 
had one son, who occupied for a few days the attention of 
Paris, when at twenty years old he married the daughter 
of Anatole France, nearly seventeen years his senior, to the 
chagrin of both their families. 

Madame Zola, also, used to receive her friends on Satur- 
days in her little flat in the Rue de Rome. At her house 
could be met all the principal actors in the Dreyfus drama, 
including its hero. I must here mention one fact that is 
very little known, that Zola, far from making money out 
of the Dreyfus affair, as it was said everywhere that he had 
done, lost a great deal by his attitude in regard to it. His 
novels, instead of being read more than had been the case 
formerly, were on the contrary boycotted, and several 
important papers for which he wrote articles, and which 
published his works before they came out in volume form, 
closed their doors to him after the letter " J'accuse," for which 
he was sent before a jury at first and to exile afterwards. 

Emile Zola died, relatively, a poor man, and his widow 
found herself reduced to almost embarrassed circumstances 
after his death. She sold a great deal of the furniture which 
he had collected, gave up to the State in return for a modest 
remuneration the villa of Medan, where he had lived for so 
many years, and arranged her existence on quite a different 
scale from that which had been her custom before her widow- 
hood. Zola, as well as Captain Dreyfus himself, were the 
only two people who did not profit by the clamour which 
arose around them and around their actions. 

Talking about Dreyfus reminds me of an incident in his 
story which, so far, I believe, has never been told. When 

336 



Salons of the Republic 

he was languishing on the barren rock called the Devil's 
Island, a Russian who had had occasion to approach the Tsar 
spoke to Mathieu Dreyfus, the Captain's brother, and advised 
him to appeal to the Russian Sovereign to intercede in favour 
of the Captain. Mathieu Dreyfus said that he would consult 
his sister-in-law, and reply in a few days. When these days 
had elapsed, he came back and told the man who had made 
the proposition that neither Madame Dreyfus, nor himself, 
thought that they had the moral right to apply to a foreign 
Monarch, or to ask his intervention in a case that was too im- 
portant for France not to allow her to dispose of it herself. 
In general the dignity displayed by the whole Dreyfus family 
cannot sufficiently be praised ; they all unanimously showed 
themselves superior to the misfortunes which assailed them. 
So far all the hostesses of whom I have spoken were long 
past middle age, but there was another lady, young and 
beautiful, with a shade of eccentricity in her manners, who 
also aspired to have a salon, and to be able to dictate to those 
who visited it, or at least to suggest to them the opinions they 
ought to have. It was the Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles, a 
Roumanian by birth, coming from the family of the Princes 
of Brancovan, whose mother had been very well known in 
London, where her father, Musurus Pasha, had occupied for 
long the post of Turkish Ambassador. The Princesse de 
Brancovan was one of the best musicians of her generation, 
and her wonderful talent for the piano was famous among 
her acquaintances. She had been handsome, and her daughters 
had inherited her loveliness as well as her intellectual gifts. 
The eldest one, whose large dowry secured her an entrance 
into the ancient aristocratic family of the Dues de Noailles, has 
made for herself a name among the poets of modern France 
Her books have been widely read, and have had a great success, 
which they deserved, because there was some really genuine 
w 337 



France from Behind the Veil 

poetic inspiration in them. Madame de Noailles has suc- 
cumbed to the vogue of eccentricity ; she wears long floating 
white garments which trail out behind and give her the appear- 
ance of a fairy from the children's tales. She speaks languidly, 
as if sick of a world she would really be very sorry to leave, 
and looks disdainfully at humanity in general. 

The Comtesse de Noailles used to give parties, during 
which she recited some of her own poetry, and allowed her 
great friend and admirer, the Comte Robert de Montesquieu, 
to read his. She did not trouble much about her guests, 
merely smiled on them when they arrived, and softly sighed 
when she saw them going away. She glided about her lovely 
rooms, as the ghost of something too beautiful to be real, 
and she seemed to be interested in nothing that did not con- 
cern her personally, or that had no association with her books 
or poems. 

Her receptions were singularly eclectic. Apart from the 
family, friends and relations of the Noailles, one met people 
who belonged to an entirely different grade — journalists, 
artists, politicians, even those of an advanced shade ; members 
of the Republican government, and diplomats or foreigners 
happening to be in Paris. She received them all with the 
utmost grace, and liked to see them surround her, like the 
satellites of her fame and of her high social position. In 
its way her vanity was as remarkable as it was charming. 

Madame de Noailles composed poems, the Comtesse de 
Greffuhle wrote operas and sonatas with decided talent. 
Madame de Greffuhle has played, and is playing still, a very im- 
portant part in Parisian society. She was by birth a Princess 
de Chimay, and had married, without dower, the Count 
Greffuhle, whose fortune was supposed to be one of the largest 
in France, and had at once begun to exercise a considerable 
influence in the circles in which she moved. She was beautiful, 

338 



Salons of the Republic 

intelligent, had great tact, and a considerable knowledge of 
the world, liked to surround herself with artists and musicians, 
to organise exhibitions of works of art, and to help her neigh- 
bour as much as she could. 

Her salon was not the meeting-place of the pure Faubourg 
St. Germain, neither was it, on the other hand, exclusively 
Republican. But it afforded a neutral ground to men be- 
longing to both parties, and her receptions were never dull 
nor banal, but on the contrary always interesting and pleasant. 
She possessed a lovely country place near Paris, called Bois 
Boudran, where she entertained most sumptuously, and where 
she often welcomed foreign Sovereigns or members of Royal 
houses, when they happened to come to France. Madame de 
Greffuhle was a woman essentially made for society, who 
could never have lived outside it. She described herself 
better than anyone else could have done one day when she 
was asked to write her name on the visitors' book of the Phare 
d'Ailly, near Dieppe, where some friends had taken her. She 
signed " Chimay Greffuhle, dame de qualite," thus admitting 
that she had no pretensions to be considered a grande dame. 

The Baron Henri de Rothschild was also " un ecrivain 
amateur," with more pretensions to literary talent than 
perhaps that talent deserved. He had married Mile. Weis- 
willer, who is supposed to be one of the best-dressed women 
in Paris, and whose name appears prominently in all the 
chronicles of the Figaro or the Gaulois. The couple entertain 
with the hospitality for which their family has always been 
famous, and the Baron has made for himself a name among 
the benefactors of the Paris poor, for whom he does a great 
deal. He has studied medicine and even practised it with 
all the zeal of a millionaire who believes himself to have a 
vocation for some kind of science. 

Baron Henri is an exceedingly pleasant man, cultured, 

339 



France from Behind the Veil 

and well read, capable of most entertaining conversation on 
a variety of topics. The receptions which he gives, and of 
which his wife helps him to do the honours with an exquisite 
grace, are the meeting-place of almost all the distinguished 
men of scientific and literary Paris. Members of the govern- 
ment can be met at them, but though his salon is known 
to be Liberal in its opinions, it is yet one at which politics 
have never played a part or been discussed. The guests suc- 
ceeded in avoiding them even at the time of the Dreyfus 
affair, during which the Rothschilds adopted an entirely 
passive and impartial attitude. 

Talking of poUtics makes me think of a house where they 
were always very prominent, and almost the only subject 
of conversation. It was the house of M. Rouvier, one of the 
ablest politicians whom France has seen in recent times, 
who had occupied, more than once, important State positions, 
and who was always spoken of, among his friends, as a possible 
President of the Republic. M. Rouvier's was a most com- 
plicated mind. He had considerable capacity, an intelli- 
gence far above the average, great ambition, and absolutely 
no vanity, perhaps because he had a full consciousness of 
his strength and of his worth, in presence of the lesser in- 
telligences with which he was surrounded. 

He had made his way with the help of a good deal of 
luck, and perhaps more determination than is generally met 
with. There was one moment in his life when he nearly 
became one of the victims of the Panama scandal, but he 
succeeded in emerging quite unharmed. As a financier, 
he very nearly approached genius, and when he left office 
almost all the large banks in France entreated him to join 
their board. He became director of a large financial estab- 
lishment, which he managed with the intelligence and know- 
ledge that he brought into everything which he attempted. 

340 



Salons of the Republic 

But although he had many partisans and more friends than 
could have been expected in a man who had held the difficult 
posts which he had successfully occupied ; though he was in a 
certain sense a sort of small king, feared by most of the 
politicians who ruled France or aspired to do so, he always 
regretted that he had been obliged to retire from the govern- 
ment of his country. When he died, he was about to put 
forward his candidature to the Presidency of the Republic, 
in opposition to that of M. Poincare or any other of the 
probable successors of M. Fallieres at the end of the latter's 
septenary. 

M. Rouvier had been twice married. His first wife 
was the famous sculptor known as Claude Vignon, whose 
first husband was I'Abbe Constant, an unfrocked priest, 
who was later on to be so well known by the name of Eliphas 
Levy, and who was considered to be the greatest master 
in occult sciences that the world possessed. I met Eliphas 
Levy more than once, and I was always extremely interested 
in him. He had a most venerable appearance, with his long 
white beard, and of all the indulgent men I have ever met 
he was the one who practised that virtue to the largest extent. 
He lived absorbed in his studies of high magic, but would 
always carefully avoid talking on the subject, save with his 
most intimate friends. He was called uncanny, I don't know 
why, because he certainly had the most peaceful countenance 
possible, but a certain prejudice used to cling to him or rather 
existed against him at the time I knew him ; probably because 
the fact of a priest having given up his profession appeared 
still to be something quite dreadful in France. 

Madame Constant, or Claude Vignon as she was generally 

called, had greatly contributed to the unfrocking of her 

husband, but though he had loved her passionately, she had 

■ very soon tired of him, and the couple separated, never 

341 



France from Behind the Veil 

to meet again so long as they lived. She married Rouvier, 
to whom she brought the very large fortune she possessed, 
but died not long after, leaving one son, with whom his father 
never could get along, and whom one never met at his house. 
The second Madame Rouvier was a small, slight woman, 
with golden curls, a most pleasant manner, and a charming 
conversationalist. She aided her husband quite admirably, 
interested herself in his poHtical career and successes, and 
was perhaps even more ambitious than he. The couple 
lived in a splendid establishment which they possessed at 
Neuilly, on the outskirts of the Bois de Boulogne, where 
they often entertained, and where generally the latest news 
of the day was to be heard. No political man would have 
dared to ignore M. Rouvier and his wife, and their salon 
has been more than once called the " succursale du Senat," of 
which he was a member. Diplomats also were to be met 
in their house ; and it was, indeed, frequented by almost 
everybody of note in Paris. 



342 



CHAPTER XXIX 

The Present Tone of Paris Society 

I have saen many changes take place in Paris during the 
twenty-five years of my sojourn in the gay city. I cannot 
say that all these changes have been congenial ; the good 
manners for which Frenchmen were famous, certainly dis- 
appeared simultaneously with the crinoline. A laisser aller 
has replaced the stiffness which at one time made the select 
Parisian houses so difficult of access to the foreigner. At 
present the American and Jewish elements have entirely 
invaded French society, and imported into it not only their 
easy ways but also an independence of speech and action 
which would have horrified dowagers of olden times. Sport 
also, which was formerly unknown, has absorbed the thoughts 
of people who would not have dreamed of it a few years ago. 
Life in hotels has done away with the intimacy of the 
home, and whereas formerly one only invited to dine at 
a restaurant people one would not have cared to entertain 
in one's own house, now it is the reverse, and those whom 
it is desired to honour are asked to lunch or to supper at the 
Ritz or the Meurice, or some other fashionable place of the 
same kind. The refinement that was so essentially a French 
characteristic has entirely disappeared. Women have grown 
loud, and men have become coarse, girls have lost their modesty, 
and boys are impertinent. An altogether new world has 
superseded that of the Second Empire. 

The advent of American millionaires has aroused the 

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France from Behind the Veil 

desire to be able to emulate their luxury, and the introduction 
of Jews into the best French society, in spite of all the efforts 
of Drumont and other anti-Semites, has done away with the 
prejudice which existed against them. Indeed, Jewish heir- 
esses are sought as wives by bearers of some of the oldest and 
most aristocratic names in France ; Mile. Ephrussi has become 
Princess de Lucinge ; the Marquise de la Fert6 Meun was 
Mile. Porges ; the Princess Murat, the wife of the head of 
that house, is the granddaughter of old Madame Heine, 
herself the only child of the banker Furtado ; and the present 
Princesse de Monaco, whose first husband was the Due de 
Richelieu, is the daughter of another Heine, also a banker, 
whose many millions she inherited. 

These new elements entering society have necessarily trans- 
formed it. Paris is now a vast hotel where are met all kinds 
of people, and no one feels the necessity to observe etiquette 
or restraint. It is a place where the man who pays can 
obtain everything he wants. Excepting in a few houses, 
as of old was that of Madame Aimery de la Rochefoucauld, 
one can meet everywhere the representatives of Hebrew 
banking houses, or great tradesmen, whom Parisian hostesses 
are but too eager to invite to their balls or receptions, feeling 
sure that it will bring them some profit in one shape or another. 
Money is the only thing that counts nowadays. It is so 
everywhere unfortunately, but in France it seems to be 
more potent than anjrwhere else. 

In consequence, society is perhaps smarter than it has ever 
been, but it is a great question whether it is so distinguished, 
and it is certain that it is no longer so good-mannered. 

If one examines things carefully, one cannot wonder at 
it. When the first heiresses to great fortunes, but to nothing 
else, were admitted into the Faubourg St. Germain dowagers 
looked at them askance, and even their husbands seemed 

344 



Paris Society of To-day 

half ashamed to have been obliged to marry them. It was 
but natural that, repulsed as it were by the people who ought 
to have opened their arms to them, they should have turned 
towards those who belonged to their own sphere. The 
nouveaux were invited to their parties, at which the old aristo 
cratic representatives of monarchical France were at first 
rather shy about putting in an appearance. But very soon the 
noblesse began to feel at home, and there met other heiresses 
whom in their turn they were to take to their bosoms. 

The leading hostesses in Paris at that time were the 
Duchesse de Grammont, nee Rothschild; the Duchesse de 
Doudeauville, whose grandmother was Madame Blanc of 
Monaco fame ; the Comtesse Bernard de Gontaut Biron, whose 
father, M. Cabibel, had not been one of Lyons' best citizens, 
though he had lived in that town all his life and made all 
his money there ; the Comtesse de Tredern, who had been 
Mademoiselle Say, and so on. 

Money did away with all the differences which formerly 
existed between the various classes of society, and newspapers 
which began to make or to mar social reputations mentioned, 
as the most fashionable women in fashionable Paris, Madame 
Schneider of Creusot fame, Madame Pierre Lebaudy, Madame 
Deutsch de la Meurthe, and the wives and daughters of every 
banker or industrial whose millions had opened the doors of 
the social Eden into which a hundred years ago no one who 
was not an aristocrat could ever have hoped to enter. Society 
became a haunt of millionaires, even Monsieur Chauchard, 
the owner of the Grands Magasins du Louvre, would have 
been admitted into it easily had he only Hved long enough. 

Automobilism, which gave to so many representatives of 
the oldest names in France the opportunity to make money 
by fostering its popularity, and lending the support of their 
family connections to the numerous shareholders' companies 

345 



France from Behind the Veil 

which sprang into existence at a minute's notice, contributed 
considerably also to what I would call the demoralisation of 
good manners. Many people, in order to make money through 
this new kind of sport, associated with persons of a very low 
social and moral standard, or even simple mechanicians were 
admitted at first to the Automobile Club, and at last into the 
drawing-rooms of its members. Much had to be forgiven these 
parvenus of sport, many errors of etiquette overlooked, but very 
soon all were forgetting themselves, and instead of raising these 
people to its own level, society came down to theirs. Ladies, who 
could more easily dispose of the tickets of the many charitable 
lotteries, or theatre performances, which they patronised 
among these nouveaux venus than in their own circle of 
acquaintances, and who, in case of necessity, could also apply 
to them for a small loan or the settlement of an angry dress- 
maker's bill, were but too glad to invite them to their recep- 
tions. So, Httle by Httle, the salons of the noble ladies of 
the Faubourg St. Germain became a kind of succursale of the 
" haute banque and haute finance " not only of Paris, but 
also of France and of New York. 

There were some exceptions to this rule, but these were 
not frequent. I must mention as one of these exceptions 
the Comtesse Jean de Montebello, one of the loveliest, most 
charming, and most intelligent women that Paris could boast. 
She was the daughter-in-law of that amiable Comtesse Gustave 
de Montebello, who had been one of the favourite ladies 
in waiting of the Empress Eugenie. She lived in the private 
hotel, which the former had built for herself in the Rue Barbet 
de Jouiy, preserving all the old traditions that were associated 
with it, and maintaining the grave, serious tone for which 
it had been famous during the Second Empire. 

Madame Jean de Montebello is a true type of the great 
lady ; her affable manners, the perfect distinction which she 

346 



Paris Society of To-day 

shows in conversation, the inimitable grace and ease that 
accompanies every one of her movements, makes her a dehght- 
ful creature. Beautiful as a dream in her youth, in her old 
age she has kept the straight, classic features, the soft eyes, 
and the kind, joyous expression for which she has always 
been famous. Her wit is bright, without the least shade of 
ill-nature, and she is one of the very few Frenchwomen of 
the higher classes whose conversation and culture constitute 
an attraction strong enough to make one forget even her 
beauty and her other charms. She is learned without being 
a pedant, and no one meeting her for the first time would 
guess that under her pleasant way of greeting you is hidden 
a knowledge and a love of art and literature such as unfor- 
tunately is but seldom found among the many fair women 
who throng the drawing-rooms of brilliant Paris. 

Madame Jean de Montebello had a cousin, the Marquise 
de Montebello, whose husband occupied for something like 
ten years the post of French Ambassador in St. Petersburg, 
and who was the subject of many discussions in the world 
in which she had literally been thrust, but to which she did 
not belong either by birth or by education. The Marquise 
de Montebello was the granddaughter of Madame Chevreux 
Aubertot, the proprietress of the big shop, called the Gagne- 
Petit, in the Avenue de I'Opera, in Paris. She was a bright, 
intelligent, dashing, intriguing woman, full of ambition, and 
of desire to play a part in European politics. Amusing, and 
utterly regardless of what people might say or think about 
her, she was enormously rich, and knew how to spend her 
money. 

When she arrived in St. Petersburg she threw wide open 
the doors of the Embassy, and entertained all who expressed 
the desire to enjoy her hospitality. She soon made friends 
with the Grand Dukes, the brothers of Alexander III., who 

347 



France from Behind the Veil 

always gave their affections and their preferences to the 
people who amused them, and, indeed, it was impossible not 
to be amused in the company of Madame de Montebello. 
She was essentially a person who liked to see the utmost 
liberty both of language and of manners reign around her, 
and who did not hesitate to put her feet on the table, or do 
anything outre, provided she could in that way attract to 
her house the company she sought. Under her rule the French 
Embassy became a sort of Liberty Hall, where one could do 
anything one liked. She gave to her friends and acquaint- 
ances the run of her house, of her kitchen and of her cellar, 
and she would have given them the run of her bedroom had 
they only dared to ask for it. 

When she left Russia she was extremely regretted there, 
even by those who did not care for her, because with her 
disappeared a bright element that always brought along with 
it some gaiety, even in the dullest circles. Whilst she was 
Ambassadress, the French alliance was extremely popular, 
it became less so after she was gone. 

The Marquis de Montebello was a diplomat of the old 
school, pompous, solemn, not esteemed clever, but with a 
ripened experience. He had traditions, knowledge of the 
world, and understood perfectly well that his enormous wealth 
would help his country to win for herself the friendship of 
Russia. He fulfilled all his duties with tact, and his manners 
were essentially those of a gentleman — quiet, reserved, and 
with a shade of self-sufficiency which became him. He made 
himself just as popular as his brilliant wife, and cared im- 
mensely for his position as an Ambassador. It broke his heart 
when he had to abandon it ; he never could get reconciled to 
the fact, the more so that he was not the favourite in Paris 
he had been in St. Petersburg, and though the Marquise tried 
to give receptions and dinners to all those who cared to come 

348 



Paris Society of To-day 

to them, she did not succeed in making either herself or her 
husband popular in Paris society, though they contrived 
to be admitted in several select houses, such as the one of 
the Comtesse Melanie de Pourtales. 

Madame de Montebello had a great friend who tried hard 
to launch her into the society of the Faubourg St. Germain. 
It was the Comte Joseph de Gontaut Biron, the son of the 
former French Ambassador in Berlin, the Vicomte de Gontaut 
Biron, and one of the most popular men in the whole of Paris, 
who usually did the honours of the city when Russian Grand 
Dukes visited it. The Comte de Gontaut was the only handsome 
member of a very ugly family which had redeemed its want 
of beauty by unusual cleverness. He had been married to 
a Princesse de PoUgnac, whose heart he had very soon broken, 
and whose fortune he had quite as soon squandered. The 
Gontauts occupied a privileged position in the Faubourg 
St. Germain, thanks to their numerous alliances and to 
their many relatives. The elder members of the family, 
such as the Comtesse Armand, or the Princesse de Beauvau, 
tried to maintain the traditions of their race, and could be 
classified among the hautes et puissantes dames of their genera- 
tion, but the younger members had mixed freely with the 
other elements of Paris society, and had assimilated their 
characteristics as well as those of their own circle. 

I have spoken of the Comte Boni de Castellane, the former 
husband of Miss Anna Gould. His father, the Marquis de 
Castellane, had at one time played a part in French politics, 
when he had been a member of the first Assemblee Nationale, 
which had elected M. Thiers as President of the Republic, 
or rather the Executive power as it was called at that time. 
Unpleasant incidents of a private nature had obliged him to 
leave public life, and also to retire from several clubs of which 
he had been a member. But he had contrived to keep afloat 

349 



France from Behind the Veil 

in the Faubourg, and was rather feared there on account 
of the sharpness of his tongue and the ill-nature with which 
he repeated all the gossip which he spent his time in collecting. 
He was extremely intelligent, and had none of the foppery 
which made his son so thoroughly disagreeable ; he would 
certainly have been a man who could have made his way 
in the world had he only tried to conform to the tenets of 
society. 

His second son married the widow of Prince Furstenberg, 
who was a cousin of his, being the daughter of the old Due 
de Sagan and of his second wife, Mademoiselle Pauline de 
Castellane, and considerably older than himself. The Comtesse 
Jean de Castellane is at the present moment one of the leading 
hostesses in Paris. She is clever, with excellent manners, 
with tendencies to pose as a woman of culture, and not dis- 
daining to write now and then little articles in the daily papers, 
which are always accepted with pleasure on account of the 
signature which accompanies them. She could never be taken 
for anything else but a lady, but I doubt whether one would 
at once call her a grande dame in the sense in which this word 
was understood formerly. 

I think I have mentioned the name of the Comtesse de 
Tredern. That lady certainly deserves more than a passing 
mention. She was a Mile. Say, the sister of the Princesse 
Amedee de Broglie, and she had married when quite young 
the Marquis de Brissac, the eldest son of the Due de Brissac, 
who was killed during the Franco-German War. Left a widow 
with two children, she began first to restore the castle of 
Brissac in Anjou, which is considered one of the finest private 
residences in France, and which she bought from her father- 
in-law. Then she married the Comte de Tredern, from whom 
she parted after a few years of troublous union. Since then 
she has queened it at Brissac, or in her beautiful house of the 

350 



Paris Society of To-day 

Place Vendome, where she regularly gives sumptuous enter- 
tainments. 

Among other hostesses I must say a word concerning the 
Duchesse de Gramont, a Jewess and the daughter of Baron 
Amschel de Rothschild of Frankfurt. She was one of the 
few really grandes dames of Paris. Clever, full of tact, and 
kind and good, as few women have been kind and good, 
she was essentially a great lady, and made for herself friends 
wherever she went. Her husband is now married to an Italian 
Princess, whom he took to his heart a few months after the 
death of the Duchesse Marguerite, but the latter is not for- 
gotten by the world which she graced and adorned, and 
where her early death caused more sincere sorrow than is 
generally expressed in the circle to which she belonged. 

Madame de Gramont had a sister who became the Princesse 
de Wagram, and who was also a favourite in Parisian society, 
where she won for herself a great position. Unfortunately 
she also died young, and with her disappeared one of the last 
great ladies in France. 

Foreigners form an important contingent in Paris society. 
The gay town has always attracted wandering souls eager 
to find in strange places what they cannot get at home, and 
who have succumbed so well to its charms that they lack the 
courage to leave it. A numerous company of Americans and 
Russians met in society live in the new district about the Arc 
de Triomphe, and they visit all the houses where entertain- 
ments are going on. Polish emigrants and Polish aristocracy 
have found their headquarters in the He St. Louis at the Hotel 
Lambert, where Prince Ladislas Tsartoryski, the husband 
of Princess Marguerite of Orleans, opened the doors of his 
magnificent residence to them with unbounded hospitality. 

Several members of the Radziwill family also settled 
by the Seine, after the marriage of one of them with 

351 



France from Behind the Veil 

the daughter of M, Blanc, the owner of the Monaco gambUng 
house. He was the father of the present Duchesse de Dou- 
deauville. The Counts Branicki and their connections bought 
themselves houses in the neighbourhood of the Rue de Pen- 
thievre, where the chief of the race had settled. There 
hostility to the Russian Government was fanned by every 
possible device, and there hatred against Russia was preached 
with an energy worthy of a better cause. 

The Russian colony was also an important one. It lacked, 
however, a rendezvous, and it had to submit to constant rebuffs 
on the part of its own Embassy and Consulate, where it is 
the fashion to repulse all the compatriots who call there 
unless they belong to the ultra-smart set which is in posses- 
sion of influence in St. Petersburg official circles. Several 
Russian Grand Dukes, who had become constant inhabitants 
of the French capital, gave their colony an appearance of 
splendour which other foreign quarters lacked. Foremost 
among these scions of the Russian Imperial house was the 
Grand Duke Paul, who, after his marriage with the divorced 
wife of one of the officers of his own regiment, had left his 
fatherland and settled in Paris permanently. He goes about 
a great deal in society, where his wife, who has been created 
Countess of Hohenfelsen by the Prince Regent of Bavaria, 
is treated like a Grand Duchess, and in society given the pre- 
cedence of one. 

Life in smart Paris to-day is totally different from life 
as it was in the time of the Second Empire. Sport has 
entered into it, and is now one of its principal functions. 
Everyone who can, or who cannot, afford it possesses an 
automobile, and thinks himself obliged to make a show of 
it in the morning in the Bois de Boulogne, which is also in- 
vaded before lunch by a bevy of fair ladies who pretend 
they come there to do some walking, but who in reality want 

352 



Paris Society of To-day 

only to show themselves and to see others. It is there that 
all the gossip, which later on in the afternoon is spread at 
many tables, finds its origin, and where reputations are marred 
and lost. It is there that " accidental " meetings take place 
either at polo or at some exhibition, or at one of the 
numerous tea-houses that have sprung up on all sides lately, 
where the Parisienne comes to eat cakes, and not to drink 
tea, with which she is not yet sufficiently familiar. From 
ten to twelve o'clock everybody worth knowing is to be met 
in the Bois, where it is fashionable to be seen at that hour, 
and where no one would care to go later or earlier. 

The afternoon offers other kinds of pleasures, and fashion- 
able society, after a pause at the aforementioned tea-houses, 
repairs either to the races or to some exhibition, or more ofteu 
in summer time to the polo ground at Bagatelle, where it 
likes to watch the game. The players belong to the most 
elegant men about town, and think that the fact of taking 
part in polo confers on them the reputation of being real 
sportsmen. The evenings are spent either at a ball or at a 
reception, but late hours are not now the custom in Paris, 
and midnight generally sees the fashionable birds in their 
beds. 

There is no serious interest in that kind of existence, no 
conversations worthy of being so called, except now and 
then by the greatest of chances. The witty, clever French 
society, the salons which had such a universal reputation 
in olden times, have all disappeared with the snows of the 
many winters that have elapsed since the days when they 
ruled public opinion, and when their influence was felt every- 
where, often in politics and always in literature, which had to 
conform more or less to their rules, and which would not have 
cared to offend their good taste. Parisian society has degen- 
erated, it is impossible to deny it, degenerated on account of 
X 353 



France from Behind the Veil 

the many foreign elements that have invaded it, and also 
on account of the importance which money has acquired, 
an importance that has taken the place occupied formerly 
by intelligence, beauty, virtue — all the things which ought 
to be respected, but which we are apt, now, to forget when 
we find them associated with that money which is the only 
god whose supremacy is acknowledged in that Paris which 
thinks itself the capital of the world, but which is only the 
purveyor of most of its evil pleasures. 

Not only in society as a whole is this laxity of demeanour 
and conduct discernible, but there is a perceptible loosening 
of the laws which used to govern legislators and officials. 
What men would formerly consider as impinging upon their 
honour is no longer looked at askance, and so things happen 
which leave an unpleasant memory. This has been observed 
in certain activities in the financial world. 

In an earlier part of these reflections I have spoken of the 
Panama affair, and in the present chapter I have made some 
reference to the money-fever that pervades Paris to-day. 
It is therefore only necessary here to be very brief. 

There was a great outcry and a wealth of righteous indigna- 
tion at the Panama disclosures, but it is difficult to perceive 
any improvement. There have been scandals of recent date, 
the echoes of which reverberate even in 1914, and in which 
just as many people were implicated whose names and social 
position ought to have put them above sordid intrigues. 
Paris has always offered an excellent ground for financiers 
of doubtful moral standing. Every paper has advertisements 
offering to the innocent pubhc every kind of facility to enable 
it to lose its money. With the help of a press wiUing to print 
anything provided it is paid for at a sufficiently high rate, 
shares not worth the paper they are printed upon are thrown 
upon the market, and are eagerly bought by credulous creatures 

354 



Paris Society of To-day 

who believe blindly in what their papers tell them, and who 
look forward to large benefits out of the promised rise of the 
said shares. That rise never comes, and then sometimes an 
angry dupe inquires of the police, generally without success, 
as to the reason why no redress can be obtained. The 
man in the street holds and expresses emphatic opinions, 
which if people believed were true would mean that the cor- 
ruption of Republican government surpasses everything 
of the kind that ever flourished at the time of the Second 
Empire, about the venality of which so much has been 
written and spoken. 

Whatever may be said of present-day finance, it is enough 
to remind the reader of the gigantic frauds which Madame 
Humbert was able to perpetrate for so many years, of the 
ease with which Cornelius Herz and Arton were able to escape 
from the grip of the law, and of the facility which the famous 
Rochette, the hero of the last financial scandal that France 
can boast, found in avoiding being imprisoned or obUged to 
give up any portion of his ill-gotten gains, Rochette succeeded 
in avoiding every pursuit for a long time, though numerous 
complaints had been made against him. It was said that the 
complaints had always been left unexamined under the pre- 
tence that they proceeded from people who simply wanted 
blackmail. It is no secret that several deputies were great 
friends with that successful financier, during whose reign 
their stock exchange operations were always profitable. 

Rochette is a curious example of the ease with which 
any man gifted with sufficient impudence can become an 
important personage. He began his career by being a waiter 
in a small hotel at Melun, soon tired of it, and went to Paris, 
where he obtained a situation as office assistant in one of 
those financial establishments which flourish for a few months 
and disappear together with their directors into the unknown 

355 



France from Behind the Veil 

after a brief and brilliant existence. His experience there 
helped him considerably in his future life. He learned to avoid 
mistakes into which a novice in finance would be apt to fall. 
It is said that he profited by the whispered advice that 
" in order to be a lucky financier, one must before everything 
have a deputy in one's pocket." 

When he became a banker and a director of several large 
concerns, he frequented the Chamber of Deputies, and even 
honoured with his attention the Senate. He affected great 
modesty, but took care to be kept well informed as to the 
private means of several important personages whose pro- 
tection he thought might be of use to him in the future, and 
he managed in an unobtrusive way to make himself indis- 
pensable to them. 

When the end came it was rumoured in Paris that most 
scandalous facts were about to come to light, and that the 
Panama affair would be eclipsed by them. Names were men- 
tioned, at first secretly then quite loudly, until at last they 
found their way into the newspapers. But, somehow, the 
inquiry which had been begun dragged on until the public got 
tired of hearing nothing about it, and made up its mind 
not to think any more about the affair. In the meantime 
in prison Rochette was leading the best kind of life possible 
under the circumstances, had all the comforts which money 
allowed him to procure for himself, received visits from his 
numerous friends, and when at last he was released on bail 
pending his trial, he declared to all those who cared to hear 
it, that he would not only prove his innocence, but find people 
willing to trust him with their money again, in spite of his 
recent misadventures. 

And when he was sentenced to several years' imprisonment, 
Rochette quietly took a railway ticket and disappeared into 
an unknown land, which probably is not very far from the 

356 



Paris Society of To-day 

scene of his former exploits ; sure that no one is going to 
discover him in the refuge which he had chosen, he is awaiting 
with the greatest confidence and calm the expiration of the 
time when proscription will allow him to reappear in Paris, 
and to begin again the financial career which he was obliged 
to interrupt for a short period. 

How was it possible for Rochette to escape whilst Charles 
de Lesseps and his father were obliged to drink to the dregs 
the cup of their humiliation ? The reply is very simple, 
perhaps obvious, and I hesitate to doubt the reader's per- 
ception by uttering it. 

When the great Lesseps was accused of having tried to 
buy the support of some members of the Parliament, everyone 
cried out that it was a scandal which ought to be punished 
as severely as possible ; but when it was proved that Rochette 
had succeeded in buying or winning over to his side some of 
the most influential political people in France, that he had 
even secured the indulgence of judges who ought to have 
been at least impartial, the public only shrugged its shoulders, 
and some persons were even found to say that after all he 
had been un homme tres fort, and that it was better to be 
his friend than his enemy. When Rochette was arrested, 
excuses without number were found for him, and he was re- 
presented to be the victim of private vengeances and private 
blackmail. Times are changed indeed, and not only the 
opinions of men, but also their ideas as to right and wrong. 



357 



CHAPTER XXX 

M. Fallieres as President 

The septenary of M. Loubet had come to an end. No one 
had ever given a thought to the possibility of his presenting 
himself for re-election, and he himself was but too glad to 
rehnquish the burden of office. M. Loubet, in spite of all 
that has been said about him, was not the insignificant per- 
sonage some had tried to represent hirr . He had been elected 
through the influence of the Radical party, but he had never- 
theless the strength of character to resist the desires or 
even the orders of that same party on several occasions when 
he thought they wanted to go too far. 

Popular opinion has it that this was sufficient to arouse 
the ire of M. Clemenceau, who, faithful to his tactics of holding 
in hand the leading strings of the government, furious to 
see his intentions frustrated, declared war against M. Loubet. 

The latter was clever enough to appear to ignore it, and 
arranged matters so as to retire from the Presidency with all 
the honours of war, leaving to his successor the task of 
coping with the difficulties which the Radical party seem.ed 
determined to put in the way of every President of the 
Republic. 

His successor, M. Fallieres, was elected largely through 
the influence of M. Clemenceau. M. Fallieres was essentially 
a peaceful man. He had accepted the position of President 
of the Republic, partly because he did not like to disobey 
the orders of his superiors, and partly because he was a careful 

358 



M. FalHeres as President 

man, an excellent father, and saw in his septenary the oppor- 
tunity to improve the material prospects of his children. 

It was during his tenure of office that the Dreyfus affair 
came to a close, and that the Captain was not only rehabilitated 
but also rewarded for his sufferings with the Legion of Honour, 
in spite of the outcries which this decision raised among the 
Clericals and the anti-Semites. It was also he who signed 
the decree granting burial in the Pantheon to the ashes of 
Zola, and it was during his septenary, moreover, that relations 
were definitely broken with the Vatican. The last event pro- 
duced a great sensation, especially when the representative 
of the Papal Nuncio, Mgr. Montagnini, was expelled from 
Paris by the police in about as brutal a way as it was possible 
to conceive. 

Much has been written concerning that last measure, 
of which, let it be said en passant, neither M. Fallieres 
nor the French Government had any reason to be proud. 
It was one of those acts of violence which only tend to ex- 
asperate the public mind against those who render themselves 
guilty of the indiscretion, but which is of no importance in 
reality. Of course Mgr. Montagnini had not behaved with the 
necessary tact in the delicate position wherein he found himself 
placed, but if he had had to do with gentlemen they would 
have asked him to go away of his own accord, which he would 
probably have been but too glad to do, and they would not 
have expelled him mania militari. M. Fallieres, in spite of his 
middle-class education, felt this, and it is said that he vainly 
tried to avoid this scandal. The Radical party, however, had 
laid down its conditions not only to him, but also to M. Clemen- 
ceau, and the latter with all his cleverness and his energy 
was not strong enough to refuse it this satisfaction, which 
was craved with persistence and in such imperative terms. 

I knew Mgr. Montagnini very well, and I happened to 

359 



France from Behind the Veil 

call on him on the eve of the day which saw him thrown out 
of France with such unnecessary brutality. He had been 
warned of the measures about to be taken against him, but 
would not believe in its possibility. When I asked him why 
he had not telegraphed to Mgr. Merry del Val, then Secretary 
of State of the Holy See, asking permission to leave of 
his own accord, he replied to me that it would have been 
useless, because that permission would never have been granted 
to him. As I expressed my astonishment he explained to 
me at length that Rome wanted the French Government 
to resort to violence against its representative because it would 
only raise the prestige of the Church and provoke general 
indignation against its persecutors. 

" All this will pass," he added ; " many months will not 
go by before the very government which does not hesitate 
to insult a priest and the official representative of the Pope 
will find itself obliged to renew relations with the Holy See. 
So many questions will arise in connection with this separa- 
tion of the Church and State, of which the French Radicals 
are so proud, that they will very soon see the mistake they 
have made." 

Though Mgr. Montagnini was not a prophet by any means, 
he proved in this particular case to be right, because in spite 
of the open rupture of the French Republic with the Vatican, 
relations were never entirely interrupted between Rome 
and Paris. Indeed it would have been impossible, because 
in spite of the hatred for the Catholic Church which the leading 
politicians in France affected, they had on different occasions 
to turn to the representatives of the clergy for help, and they 
did not disdain even to ask them to use their influence when- 
ever they wanted a candidate to be elected either in the Senate 
or in the Chamber of Deputies, who under the mask of 
being a moderate Liberal, was in reality a Radical of the 

360 





Photo: Nadarz, Paris, 

M. A. FALLIERES 
(President 1906-1913) 



Photo: Brann, Pa/i 
M. R. POINCARE 
(President 1913) 





Photo: Gc?schcl, Pa/n. 

m. A. BRIAND 



Photo : Gcrschd, Paris, 
M. G. CLEMENCEAU 



M. Fallieres as President 

purest water, and a fervent partisan of M. Clemenceau and 
his group. 

It was at that time that the star of M, Clemenceau began 
to ascend higher in the heavens than it had ever been. 
Until the election of M. FalUeres, he had more or less ruled 
in the dark, and as it were en cachette. When his candidate 
had been given the first position in the State the hour of his 
triumph sounded. 

M. Clemenceau, in spite of all that has been said, had 
never been a partisan of the Russian alliance. His sympathies 
were entirely English. He had been the object of the special 
attention of King Edward, and his political plans comprised 
a strong Franco-English friendship, which would prove to 
be a shield in case of a new war with Germany. 

M. Clemenceau would not have been sorry to see war. 
He was far too shrewd not to notice that in spite of the violent 
attacks of a certain portion of the press against Germany, 
the majority of the nation did not any longer harbour such 
feelings of hatred against their eastern neighbour as formerly 
existed. More than that, a good many people thought that 
it would be better to reconcile oneself to facts, and, by an 
understanding with the German Government, to avoid the 
heavy taxes which the increased armaments imposed on the 
country. These armaments were not popular among the greater 
number of Frenchmen. Forty years had gone by since the 
war of 1870, and a new generation had succeeded to the one 
that had witnessed the unexampled disasters which had brought 
about the fall of the Second Empire. That younger generation 
could not feel in the same way as its fathers had done ; it 
only saw that France was prosperous, and that a war, even 
if it turned out to be successful, could but increase the military 
burdens of the country. This appealed to no one, and con- 
sequently a renewal of hostilities with Germany was not 

361 



France from Behind the Veil 

desired. M. Clemenceau, on the contrary, had rabid anti- 
German feehngs, and he encouraged what chauvinist tendencies 
still existed in France, and tried to persuade the leading 
men in England that the conclusion of an understanding 
with France would prove of infinite advantage to both 
countries. 

Unfortunately Russia could not be left out of this under- 
standing, and M. Clemenceau had perforce to submit to the 
fact, but he did his best, nevertheless, to destroy the Russian 
sympathies which existed in his fatherland by urging the 
newspapers which were at his disposal to say that in signing 
the famous Franco-Russian alliance, which had been the 
cause of so much joy, France had been the dupe — France who 
had given her money, and France who had thrown herself 
into the arms of Russia, whilst the latter had taken all that 
she had been offered, without giving anything in return for 
the gifts freely showered on her with a more than generous 
hand. 

Nevertheless, M. Fallieres started for St. Petersburg, 
as in duty bound, almost immediately after his election, 
conforming himself thus to the tradition which had been 
handed over by M. Felix Faure to his successors. 
He was warmly welcomed on the banks of the Neva, but 
welcomed only by the government and officials who followed 
the lead given to them by the Sovereign, The country itself 
remained very indifferent during his visit, and the attitude 
of the public was not at all what it had been when Felix 
Faure had arrived at Peterhof to return the memorable 
visit of Nicholas II. in Paris. Somehow the alliance was more 
accepted as an accomplished fact than as an advantage. 
In Russia, too, the hour of disillusion had struck. 

M. Fallieres, in spite of what had been said of him, 
was very far from being the nonentity he was reported to 

362 



M. Fallieres as President 

be. On the contrary, he had an unusual amount of common 
sense, and was not slow to notice the change in the political 
atmosphere of the day. Nevertheless, he did his best to 
disguise from the public the fact of the coolness which had 
begun to replace the mutual enthusiasm of France and Russia 
for each other, but when he returned home he began to listen 
more than he had done formerly to the advice of M. Clemenceau, 
and to look towards England as a possible ally, having learnt 
much by his visit to Peterhof. 

Although it has been reported otherwise, M. Fallieres was 
fond of M. Clemenceau, and they got on very well together the 
whole time the latter remained Prime Minister. Together 
they worked for the benefit of M. Briand, the new star that 
suddenly arose in the heaven of the Third Republic, and 
which began to shine in great part through their efforts to 
assure themselves of its help and co-operation towards the 
final triumph of the Radical party. 

I shall talk of M, Briand in the next chapter. Some people 
saw in him a successor of M. Fallieres as President of the 
Republic, a conviction which personally I did not share at 
all, and events proved the truth of my conviction. M. Briand 
was far too clever to retire at that moment from political life, 
which still has many triumphs in store for him, and a man 
who has once occupied the position of Head of the State 
has no future after his term of office is over ; he can only 
end his days in peace, with the broad red ribbon of the Legion 
of Honour across his breast as a remembrance of happy days 
never to return. 

The reign of M. Fallieres had its share of scandals. I 
have already spoken of M. Rochette. There were others 
besides, among them that provoked by the tragic adventures 
of Madame Steinheil, whose trial and subsequent acquittal 
occupied Parisian society for long months. 

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France from Behind the Veil 

Several episodes of the same kind have lately occupied 
public attention. They have all left M. Fallieres more or 
less indifferent, and have not ruffled his equanimity. He 
fulfilled his duties in an unostentatious fashion, and tried to 
impart as much simplicity as possible to the Presidential 
household. He travelled about, distributed all the hand- 
shakes required of him and all the medals and decorations 
that his ministers had awarded to their adherents. He 
partook of the regular number of official dinners, opened 
exhibitions and charitable institutions, in a word he was a 
model President, and it is quite possible that M. Clemenceau 
viewed the end of his Presidency with regret, 

Madame FaUi^res has been the subject of all kinds of 
absurd stories. Notwithstanding these, she did not show 
herself as unfit for the part she had been called upon to play 
as her enemies would have us believe. She was polite with 
everybody, reserved in her manners, and avoided mistakes. 
She has done much good, and if she was not so generous 
as some of her predecessors had shown themselves, she never 
refused to give money for the cause of charity, when it was 
necessary, but on the contrary tried to alleviate the distresses 
which were brought to her notice. She did not pose for 
what she was not, and she always declared that when she 
would have to leave the Elysee, she would do so with regret 
at having to give up such a sumptuous home, but that at 
the same time she would not be sorry to return to private 
life and its simplicity. 

M. and Mme. Fallieres had several children born to 
them. Their only daughter was married a few years ago 
to M. Jean Lannes, who had been, until the day when 
he accompanied to the altar the daughter of his chief, the 
private secretary of the President of the Republic. His 
marriage caused a certain sensation in Republican circles, 

364 



M. Fallieres as President 

because it was celebrated in the Church of the Madeleine, in 
spite of the fact that M. Fallieres was supposed to be a 
freethinker, which in reality he was not by any means. 
But Madame Fallieres was a fervent Catholic, and she never 
would have allowed her child to be married simply at the 
mairie, as it was suggested to her by some zealous friends. 
Madame Fallieres had always the courage of her opinions, 
and she has showed it during her reign as the first lady of 
the French Republic. 

Her son, Andre Fallieres, was the subject of much talk 
at the time of the Steinheil affair, and some people affirmed 
— ^well, it does not matter what ; it is needless to say that 
there was not the shghtest foundation for such a story. 

(^ When M. Fallieres' term of office was over, there were but 
three candidates possible for the position : one of them was 
M. Clemenceau himself; M. Pamm, a very wealthy manu- 
facturer possessed of the vast influence which unlimited means 
always allow one to wield ; and M. Poincare, advocate and 
Academician, a man gifted with singular strength of will, 
strong Conservative principles, who endeavours to govern 
personally the country entrusted officially to his care, who has 
a holy horror of Radicals, and who is cordially disliked by 
M. Clemenceau. 

This last was perhaps the very reason why M. Poincare 
was elected — the Chamber and the Senate have become just 
a little tired of the autocracy exercised over them by the 
tombeur de ministeres. 



365 



CHAPTER XXXI 

M. Briand and the Socialists 

I HAVE mentioned M. Briand ; he is certainly the most 
remarkable politician that France can boast at the present 
moment, and one who will probably rise to greater things 
even than those he has so far achieved. He began life as 
a worlanan in a factory, and soon made himself known by 
eloquent speeches, which he delivered at Socialist meetings 
in Lyons, St. Etienne, and other working centres in France. 
He had more education than people belonging to his class 
generally boast, and he was wise enough to understand 
that it was imperative that he should complete it, if he desired 
to play an important part in the historical development 
of his country — perhaps one day to rule it. Accordingly, 
he devoted all his spare time to that object, and refused 
offers to accept a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Only 
when he felt sure that he could hold his own in that assembly 
of politicians did he entertain the idea. 

M. Briand is one of the most ambitious men of his 
generation, and he distinguishes himself from most of his 
colleagues by the knowledge which he possesses of his own 
power, and by the extreme prudence with which he shows 
it in public. It is true that he likes to rule, but he does not 
care for people to know that he rules them. In this he differs 
from others in power, who are not guiltless of displaying 
the influence which they exercise over their political friends 
and disciples, 

366 



M. Briand and the Socialists 

When M. Briand entered the Chamber of Deputies, he 
spent the first years initiating himself into the secrets of 
social Hfe, being very well aware of the importance of such 
things; with an energy of which very few people would 
have been capable he set himself to learn. He ended by becom- 
ing one of the best-groomed men in Paris. His former friends 
stared ; at first they felt tempted to be angry. They very 
soon realised, however, that a deep political purpose was hidden 
behind this apparent flattery of society, and they began to 
respect him, and to talk about him as of a man born to great 
things. When at last he became a power in his party, and 
in France, and joined M. Clemenceau's ministry, they under- 
stood that he would prove a leader such as very few political 
parties could boast. 

His ambition is defined by those who are watching his 
career as aiming to grasp the reins of France, and to hold 
them fast, until the day when he can show himself to the 
whole world as the strong man of France. 

M. Briand has an exceptional nature. He has no illusions, 
either about himself or about those who surround him. He 
knows very well that the man who allows sentimentality to 
interfere with politics is lost long before he has begun to 
fight. He early hastened therefore to put a barrier between 
himself and everything that could be called by that name. 

He gained his place in his party ; won the votes of the 
electors who had sent him to the Chamber to defend their 
interests, without having recourse to underhand tricks ; he 
fought his adversaries with clean hands. He won the admir- 
ation of his partners in the game he played by the audacity 
with which he always put himself forward when danger was 
ahead. He exercised influence over his colleagues in the 
ministry by the energy with which he defended his personal 
opinions, and the independence which he showed in questions 

367 



France from Behind the Veil 

where his principles found themselves involved. And he 
gained the attention of his country by the strength of his 
personality, the calm which never forsook him in the gravest 
circumstances of life, and the cold determination which he 
brought to bear upon everything he did, and every blow 
which he dealt. 

Enemies he had in plenty, detractors very few. Many 
hated him, but they did not despise him. Years ago he realised 
that he had succeeded in winning the respect of France, and 
he meant to keep it. 

Too far-seeing to fail to understand that the theories by 
which he had been able to attain his position were Utopian 
and would not carry him very far, M. Briand had no sympalhy 
with the programme of destruction which the Labour party 
of his early days had brought forward ; indeed, it looked as 
if he meant to sweep away that party as soon as he succeeded 
in gaining power and in inspiring confidence in his personality 
and his political principles. He had patience, a thing so 
rarely met with in politicians, who are always eager to see 
their opinions triumph without waiting for the moment 
when they become acceptable to the nation. He felt, more- 
over, that he was the only man capable of saving France 
from the hands of the anarchists who at that time were deter- 
mined to destroy her. 

He had been a workman, and had learned to appreciate 
the evil passions and the thirst for unreasoning destruction 
which not infrequently animates the mob. He knew but too 
well that the spread of Socialist theories would lead to nothing 
but the desire to overthrow everything without the possibility 
of putting anything else in the place of what had been trampled 
under foot, and he made up his mind not to lend himself to 
the ambitions of those who aimed at annihilation. 

It is yet too early to judge whether M. Briand's plans 

368 



M. Briand and the Socialists 

will ever be realised, but for those who know him as well 
as I do, it is pretty certain that sooner or later he will try to 
constitute a moderate Republican party, determined to put 
a stop to the progress of anarchism, and to rally around the 
new party the sound forces of the nation. He will then be 
the object of the denunciation and hatred of his friends of 
yesterday, who will see in him a traitor, and who will fight 
him with all the energy of which they are capable. They 
will endeavour to overthrow him as they have other idols that 
they have worshipped in the past. 

It is probable, however, that M. Briand will not lose 
prestige by this cry of revenge which will certainly be raised, 
and that he will continue in the path which he has marked 
out. He is essentially an opportunist, and moreover has 
enough common sense not to attach himself to the success 
of the moment ; rather he looks to the future for his ultimate 
triumph, a triumph he will not miss, and which will not miss 
him. At present the only hope France can have of the estab- 
lishment of a strong, moderate Republican government, able 
to exist without having recourse to the votes of the Socialists, 
lies in M. Briand. He alone is able to stop the torrent 
that is threatening to carry away the existing order of 
things. 

In M. Briand, M. Clemenceau finds a strong man with 
strong political opinions, but it is not likely, so long as the 
latter is alive, that his former pupil will come out openly 
against him. 

M. Briand was for a short time considered the real 
leader of the Socialist party. This did not last very long, 
and perhaps he was not sorry to give up that position, and 
to have the opportunity of disagreeing openly with M. Jaures, 
the great oracle and prophet of Socialism. 

M. Jaures is a curious personality. He is extremely rich, 
Y 369 



France from Behind the Veil 

and yet preaches a general division of all wealth — save 
his own. He is gifted with singular and powerful eloquence, 
and knows how to appeal to the hearts and especially to the 
imagination of his hearers, using a torrent of words which 
leaves such a deep impression on those who listen to him 
that they lose sight of all that is false and untrue in them. 
M. Jaures is worshipped by the more fiery Sociahsts, who 
consider even Radicalism as something associated with Con- 
servatism, and whose only creed is the destruction of every- 
thing that existed before their time. 

He is ambitious of influencing others, but has no desire 
to rule his country, perhaps because he knows very well 
that the moment he would consent to enter or to form a 
ministry half his prestige would be gone. He is too in- 
telligent not to understand that the moment that one has 
power one is bound to defend those who have given it to you 
as well as the principles to which one owes it. And M. Jaures 
with all his eloquence is unable to defend anything; he can 
only attack, a thing which is easier and nine times out of 
ten more successful — at least in politics. 

He is the type of a tribune of Roman times ; he can win 
the masses over to his view, and knows very well how to 
incense them against those whom they consider to be their 
enemies ; it is a question whether he would be able to stop 
these masses, should he ever desire to do so. 

Very often the question has been asked whether M. Jaures 
is a sincere Socialist, or whether he has declared himself to 
be one simply because he wanted to attract the attention 
of the world to his person, his opinions and his speeches. 
To this question it is most difficult to reply. Certainly M. 
Jaures has a great deal that is theatrical in his nature, he is 
an actor by temperament as well as a fighter, and this has 
perhaps contributed more than anything else to the attitude 

370 



M. Briand and the Socialists 

which he has taken in pohtics. Nothing gives him more 
pleasure than by scathing phrases to disarm his adversaries 
or inspire them with terror. 

Strange to say, the Sociahsts have never reproached him 
for his large fortune, which he has always steadfastly refused 
to share with them. M. Jaures is in their eyes a privileged 
person whom they allow not to practise the virtues which 
he preaches. They know but too well that they possess in 
him a strength they cannot well spare. 

France, it seems to me, is a country where Socialism is 
rampant, and yet one where it has the least chances to seize 
control of the country. The explanation lies in the fact that 
the working classes are far from possessing the intellectual 
development which we find among them in Germany, or even 
England. Men like Virchow, Liebneckt, or Bebel are not 
to be found in France, where if they existed they would at 
once embrace the political convictions of the bourgeois class, 
which after all has the upper hand in that country. French- 
men are very practical ; it suits them to scream against all 
those who are in possession of riches, but the moment 
they have earned the francs which they envied in their 
opponents they immediately become disdainful of their former 
friends. All the French workmen are Socialists until they 
get rich, but the country itself is essentially bourgeois, and 
we all know that the French bourgeois is not the most 
unselfish of beings. 

From this fact I draw the conclusion that, so long as the 
present love of money lasts, there is little danger of a purely 
SociaUst government ever ruling France. 



371 



CHAPTER XXXII 

A Few Literary Men of the Present Day 

If one decides to forget the past and the great thinkers who 
had made the middle of last century so interesting in France, 
one can find great pleasure in knowing some of the literary 
men of the present day in Paris, They are always amusing, 
and perhaps the art of small talk is practised by them more 
brilliantly than among their predecessors. Anatole France, 
Octave Mirbeau, and Pierre Loti are among the foremost 
novelists, and for those who have given themselves over to 
historical studies the Marquis de Segur is the most acceptable 
name. I must also give grateful mention to such as Guy 
de Maupassant and Flaubert — the great Flaubert, whom so 
many have tried to imitate, but whom few could approach 
either as regards his talent or his thorough knowledge of 
the French language. 

The well known Octave Mirbeau began his literary career 
as the secretary of Arthur Meyer, the director and 
present owner of the Gaulois. He has a profound belief in his 
own work, and with some justice. He certainly is clever, 
and the talent with which he describes in his novels what he 
has not felt is such as one but seldom meets nowadays. His 
books are remarkable, and they awake passionate interest 
in their readers, even though they are so strong with realism 
that they repel many. They are highly imaginative, and 
provoke not only curiosity but also the desire to read them 
over again as soon as one has finished them. 

372 



Literary Men of the Present 

From being quite unknown Octave Mirbeau has risen 
high in the literary firmament of his country and his genera- 
tion. He soon made his name, gossip saying that he kept 
himself before his contemporaries by his sharp criticisms 
of everybody and everything he did not like, or he thought 
did not like him. He spared no one. Nevertheless he became 
famous in Paris and throughout France. He succeeded, 
therefore, in making his books popular. 

M. Mirbeau began as a poor man ; quickly, however, he 
earned for himself a large fortune, partly through his books, 
partly through successful operations on the Stock Exchange, 
and partly by marriage. M. Mirbeau lives in clover in one 
of the finest apartments of the Avenue du Bois, and on the 
lovely property which he possesses at Cormeilles-en-Vexin, 
near Paris. He gives dinners now and then, and has always 
been upon excellent terms with the wife to whom he owes so 
much of his worldly goods. He likes to see at his hospitable 
hearth the people of whose admiration he feels sure, and 
honoured me once with an invitation to lunch when I least 
expected it, for we had never been very friendly towards 
each other. 

I shall never forget that lunch. There were only four of 
us, the host and hostess, Rodin the sculptor, and myself. 
When I arrived I was introduced in the study, where the first 
thing which struck my eyes was the bust of Mirbeau himself 
on the mantelpiece. As I looked at it, after having exchanged 
the first greetings with the people in the room, Madame 
Mirbeau turned to me, and said in her softest accents — and 
she has a delightfully soft voice : " You are looking at my 
husband's bust ; it is the work of our great master here," 
and she turned towards Rodin. 

The latter raised himself slightly from the depths of the 
large arm-chair in which he was ensconced beside the fire, 

373 



France from Behind the Veil 

and looking at me, murmured dreamily : " Ah, it is not every- 
body's bust I care to do, but when one meets with a remark- 
able personality like our great writer here, it is a pleasure 
for an artist to reproduce his features," 

He sighed as he spoke, and Mirbeau's face lighted up 
as he said in his turn : "I never hoped for such a reward 
for all my work as to be thought worthy of the attention 
of our great master." 

And then Madame Mirbeau began again : " Ah, it is not 
often that two great souls like our two great masters here 
present meet and think together." 

Lunch was announced, and Rodin rose, and directed his 
steps towards the dining-room. Fearing that I might step 
before him, Mirbeau stopped me by laying his hand upon 
my arm, saying as he did so : " Laissez passer le maitre, 
notre maitre a tons ! " 

And this kind of thing went on during the whole meal. 
Rodin praised Mirbeau, Mirbeau praised Rodin, and Madame 
Mirbeau praised both of them. One heard nothing but 
" cher maitre," and " ce grand maitre," and " notre grand 
maitre " — I began to think that I had been invited to 
assist at the canonisation of Rodin by Mirbeau, and of Mirbeau 
by Rodin, or of both by Mirbeau's wife. 

Anatole France has a fluent and correct French diction, 
but whilst admiring him, I cannot forget that there have 
been other great thinkers, writers, and philosophers, not 
only in France but also in Europe. And this is what his 
worshippers won't admit. St. Simon will always provide 
enjoyment for the people who wade through his pages ; 
Renan's works will always remain a model of fine language, 
and of noble thoughts nobly expressed ; Thiers's history of 
the Consulate and the Empire will always be consulted by 
those who care for the oast and all it has seen and witnessed. 

374 



Literary Men of the Present 

I doubt very much whether the life of Jeanne d'Arc will 
ever become a classic work. 

Apart from this liking for the congenial atmosphere of 
praise, Anatole France is a charming man, full of humour, 
amusing in the extreme, his conversation sparkUng with 
witty anecdotes and bons mots, which he utters now and then 
when one least expects them. He has a wonderful memory, 
and when all is said and done possesses a great deal of kind- 
ness in his judgments, with a considerable indulgence towards 
his neighbours. He has none of the sharpness of language 
of Mirbeau, and is more a gentleman. His manner with 
women is a model of its kind; he treats them with a 
chivalry which savours of the days of old, when men still 
died for the ladies of their heart. M. Anatole France, taken 
on the whole, is certainly a person worth knowing, and is 
one of the most charming men in Paris at the present 
day. 

I don't think that I met Flaubert more than a couple of 
times, but he left on my mind an impression that probably 
nothing will ever efface. There was real genius in his face, 
and, in spite of a certain tendency to grumble at everything 
and at everybody, he could be a charming companion. He 
was the inventor of the Naturalistic school, and unfortunately 
others tried to copy him, with the appalling result which 
we who live in France have seen. But nothing could be 
more amusing than to witness his rage when shown the dis- 
tasteful manuscript of some talentless young man, and being 
told that it was supposed to be an imitation of his style. 
He used to burst into real fury, and declare that if this was 
going to be the result of his arduous work, he would rather 
throw in the fire all that he had ever written. Flaubert 
was not devoid of ideals, and though he believed that novels 
ought to describe life, he did not think that they must depict 

375 



France from Behind the Veil 

every phase of the material side of it. He was a great genius, 
and what was allowed to him would not be tolerated in 
others. 

Pierre Loti is another genius in his way. In his charming, 
lovely books each line breathes with a deep, real talent. Some 
of his descriptions show us certain spots and places with such 
vividness that it is almost possible to think one has seen 
them too. There are passages in " Mon Frere Yves," in 
" Desanchantees," in " Le Pelerin d'Angkok," and especially 
in that delightful and profound work, " Le Livre de la Pitie 
et de la Mort," the like of which have perhaps never been 
written before in the French language. But the man him- 
self is anything but sympathetic. He thinks far too much 
of his own genius, and his affectation jars on the nerves. I 
have never been able to understand why the people who 
write clever books should consider themselves as made of 
superior clay to other mortals, and I feel inclined to laugh 
always whenever I see an author affect habits, language, and 
general demeanour different from those of common humanity 
simply on account of the tales which he has composed, 
thanks to the intelligence and cleverness that Providence has 
given to him, and which it might just as well have given to 
someone else. 

A man who did not think himself something extraordinary, 
and who, perhaps, had more genius in his little finger than 
others in their whole body, was Guy de Maupassant, that 
cruel observer of the human heart who understood so 
well the feelings of his generation, and who was to die so 
miserably, first losing that intellect which had made him 
such a strong man and such a remarkable writer. There 
was a time when I often saw him, and his death grieved me 
very much more than I could even have supposed. 

Emile Augier and Jules Claretie belonged still to a genera- 

3/6 



Literary Men of the Present 

tion where self-praise was absent. The last-mentioned writer 
was perhaps one of the greatest workers of his time. I often 
wondered at the activity which allowed him to fulfil his duties 
as director of the Comedie Fran9aise, to write the charming 
feuilletons which the Temps publish every week, and to do 
all this apart from innumerable other things, among which 
the composition of novels holds a place. 

There have been many who grumbled in public at 
the manner in which Claretie administered the Comedie 
Fran9aise, perhaps they would have grumbled just as much 
if someone else had been in his place. The post was not an 
easy one, for it required an amount of tact such as is not to 
be found everywhere. But what cannot be denied is that he 
filled it like the gentleman he was, and that he insisted on 
his staff behaving like gentlemen and ladies so long as they 
remained under his control. He gave to his theatre an air 
of dignity and of correctness which put it high above any 
other in Paris. 

Another man who could be classed in the same category 
as Jules Claretie was the Vicomte de Vogue, also a member 
of the Academy, and a writer imbued with the grand traditions 
of the seventeenth century when La Rochefoucauld wrote 
his maxims and La Bruyere his philosophical meditations 
on the foibles of mankind. M. de Vogue can be classed among 
the best authors of the latter part of the nineteenth century, 
and his books will always be read with pleasure when those 
of other authors will be entirely forgotten. 

There are just a few writers of the same style left among 
the ranks of the French Academy, such as the Marquis de Segur, 
whom I have already mentioned, but unfortunately that 
learned assembly has deteriorated, and has welcomed to its 
bosom literary men of a very inferior rank. 

I will not put among them M. Paul Bourget, who, though 



France from Behind the Veil 

his books have sadly gone out of fashion, is an active, charming- 
writer full of the spirit of observation. I find myself thinking 
of him, however, as an author who wanted to imitate Balzac, 
and who imagined that he had written a sequel to the " Comedie 
Humaine," whilst in reality he had only described the 
comedy of a certain small circle of Parisian smart society;, 
which has already changed so much that one cannot recognise 
a single known person among those he tried to describe so 
faithfully. 

Marcel Prevost is also among the men I have often met, 
and I liked him very much. He was modest ; he did not 
always speak of his personal perfections, and did not think that 
the fact of his having been elected a member of the French 
Academy relieved him from study or from honest hard work. 
He was also a delightful companion. Few men are living 
to-day who are better informed as to the virtues or the vices 
of his generation ; he has a thorough knowledge of the human 
heart, he realises the artificiality of the society among which 
he lives, and also its follies, for which his indulgence is 
seldom lacking. 

There is much earnestness in the talent of M. Marcel 
Prevost, far more than in the sketches, for one can hardly 
call them anything else, of Abel Hermant, who poses for the 
satirist of his time and of his generation, and who for- 
gets that one could often find much about himself to 
satirise. 

I will not do more than mention the modern playwrights 
such as Henri Bataille, Alfred Capus, Henri Bernstein, Francis 
du Croisset, and so on. They write in order to make money, 
and of course must compose dramatic pieces which can bring 
it to them. They are more or less cahotins themselves, 
owing to the influence of the many actors with whom their 
whole Hfe is spent, and they often mistake life for a comedy, 

378 



Literary Men of the Present 

which unfortunately it is not, introducing drama when it is 
not needed. Still, I hardly see how they could avoid it, 
living, as everybody does, in an artificial atmosphere. The 
greatest actors in Paris indeed are those who do not appear 
on the stage. 

It is impossible to pass actresses by in silence ; they rule 
Paris with a rod of iron, and are given far more importance 
than the highest born. Artists like Madame Sarah Bernhardt, 
R6jane, Jane Hading, or the " divine " Bartet, as she is called, 
of the Comedie Frangaise, without mentioning Cecile Sorel, 
who is something else besides an actress of unrivalled talent, 
are all the objects of far more attention than a queen would 
be should she appear in the circles in which these ladies 
live. One looks up to them not only as clever, talented 
artists, but also the supreme mistresses of fashion ; as 
examples to be imitated by all those who can do so ; as the 
most fascinating, interesting women in Paris. Their dresses, 
their hats, their jewels, carriages, and sumptuous apartments 
are described in all the newspapers ; their movements are 
chronicled as if they were empresses. 

Among all these fair, charming creatures, Madame Bartet 
is certainly the most ladylike, not only in her person, but 
also in her tastes and quiet refinement. She has been lucky 
enough to keep her youth at an age when most other women 
have long ago forgotten that they ever had such a possession, 
and her slight figure, her lovely complexion, despite her more 
than fifty years, make her look always young and altogether 
charming. Sarah Bernhardt is a great-grandmother, yet 
she also can play the Dame aux Camelias without appearing 
ridiculous in the eyes of her old admirers. She is perhaps 
the greatest actress that France has produced since Rachel, 
but I cannot say that I ever found her sympathetic. To my 
mind she screams far too much, and is not natural in her 

379 



France from Behind the Veil 

conception of the many heroines which she represents. 
But she is so charming as a woman of the world, so inter- 
esting in her intercourse, that I am quite ready to say that 
it is I who have bad taste, and that all she does is perfection 
itself. 

Re jane is something quite different ; there is more real 
passion in her acting, though much less refinement. She is 
vulgar, and the heaviness of her whole person adds to that 
first impression ; but she knows how to represent the different 
feelings of joy, despair, sorrow, anger and rage that can shake 
a human creature. She is life itself whenever she appears 
on the stage, not life seen through rose-coloured spectacles, 
but life as we have unfortunately to live and to bear it, 

Jeanne Granier is still a favourite with the Parisian public, 
though her lovely voice has become worn, and her increasing 
stoutness has done away with her former grace. 

Jane Hading was also at one moment the rage, but she 
did not remain a long time the fashion, though we still see her 
name on the programmes of different theatres. She certainly 
played well, but tried too much to imitate Sarah, which 
did not always agree with her style of beauty, to which, 
let it be said en passant, she owed most of her successes 
rather than to her talent, which was not that of a tragedienne 
by any means. 

As for Cecile Sorel, she is an exception among actresses, 
just as much as she is an exception among women. She has 
often reminded me of the Duchesse de Longueville and those 
other ladies of the time of the Fronde who led men to victory 
or to death. Her beauty is something quite extraordinary, 
more by its originality than by its perfection. She is the 
incarnation of feminine charm, and clever in mind as well 
as cultured and well-bred. Her whole demeanour is that of a 
grande dame. 

380 



Literary Men of the Present 

And actors, you will ask me, actors such as Guitry, or 
Le Bargy or Mounet Sully, what do you think of them ? 
I think nothing, because I do not know them. In my time 
one kissed the pretty fingers of a lovely actress, but one 
did not invite actors to one's house. I have kept to this 
tradition, and do not regret it. 



381 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

A Few Foreign Diplomats 

During the quarter of a century that I Hved in Paris I was 
fated to see many changes among the Diplomatic Corps, first 
at the Court of Napoleon III., and afterwards at the Elysee. 
I must say that in all the diplomatic circle I seldom found 
unpleasant or rude colleagues, but that, on the contrary, I 
have met most charming men and women whom it was a 
privilege and an honour to know. It is impossible to speak 
of them all, but there are a few figures which have left such 
a vivid remembrance in my mind that I must mention them. 

I think I have spoken of Prince and Princess Metternich ; 
they were great favourites with the Empress Eugenie, and 
another Ambassador who shared her affections was Count 
Nigra, one of the ablest diplomats Italy could ever boast. 
A faithful servant and pupil of the great Cavour, he watched 
on his behalf everything that was going on in France, and 
helped the unfortunate Empress in her flight, or rather did 
not help her, because his intervention, together with that of 
his Austrian colleague, consisted in advising her to run away, 
and perhaps even in obliging her to do so, from a feeling that 
later on it would be easier to get a revolutionary government 
to shut its eyes to the advance of the Italian troops on Rome, 
and their conquest of the Eternal City. 

Count Nigra was a charming man. It was said that one 
could never believe anything he said, or rely upon anything 
he promised. But apart from this he was the pleasantest 

382 



A Few Foreign Diplomats 

colleague one could have, and contrived to remain on good 
terms with all those he knew, even when in diplomacy he had 
cheated them of something or other. After he left Paris, 
I met him in Vienna and in St. Petersburg, and was always 
delighted to have those opportunities. 

Lord Lyons spent long years in Paris, and represented 
the government of Queen Victoria with great dignity. He 
was a gentleman and also a most able diplomat, and whilst 
he stayed at the Faubourg St. Honore, Anglo-French relations 
remained excellent in spite of the many attempts made to 
spoil them. His successors also left excellent memories behind 
them when their term of office came to an end; and Lord 
Lytton especially had contrived to make for himself many 
friends among French society, which at that time did not 
look upon foreigners with the same enthusiasm it professes 
to-day. Lord Lytton was a scholar, a writer and also a 
statesman, a combination one does not meet frequently in 
our age of mediocrities. He was a great friend, and, I think, 
also a distant relation, of Lord Salisbury, who had firm con- 
fidence in his abilities ; he enjoyed greater latitude than 
other Ambassadors had done or did later on. 

I will say nothing about Count Arnim. We were never 
intimate or even on friendly terms with each other. He 
was extremely stiff, and had a considerable amount of the 
morgue prussienne in his ways, so that very few people sym- 
pathised with him or with his opinions. Nevertheless, his 
trial, and the long war which Prince Bismarck waged against 
him, aroused an interest in his fate which would not have 
existed under different circumstances. But, all the same, 
one was not sorry when Prince Hohenlohe succeeded him. 
The Prince was received with a certain amount of kind feeling 
such as could not have been expected under ordinary 
conditions. 

383 



France from Behind the Veil 

Prince Hohenlohe was one of the greatest among the 
grand seigneurs in Germany. He was related to the Royal 
Family of Prussia and to almost all the crowned heads in 
Europe. He had been President of the Bavarian ministry, 
and as such had shown great devotion to the cause of German 
unity. His character had always been above reproach, his 
tact was exquisite, and his straightforwardness was recognised 
even among the enemies of his political ideas and opinions. 
He was essentially a man of duty, and he never failed in 
its fulfilment, no matter how painful this might be. All 
those who knew him respected him, and when he was sent 
to Paris as Ambassador, it was felt among the diplomatic 
circles of Europe that his presence there would help to do 
away with many prejudices and misunderstandings. 

I was a frequent visitor at the house of Prince Clovis, 
as we called him familiarly, and whenever I left him it was 
with admiration for his shrewd intelligence and the logic 
displayed in all his reasonings and appreciations of men and 
of events. He had very few illusions, but at the same time 
an excessive kindness in all his judgments of other people. 
Ill-nature was unknown to him, and he was always ready to 
find excuses for the mistakes he could not help noticing in 
his neighbours. Prince Hohenlohe was infinitely above all 
his contemporaries in everything, both as a private and as 
a public man, and in all the high offices which he held he 
won for himself the esteem and the affection of all who had 
to do with him. 

He made himself liked, too, in Paris in those first years 
which followed upon the war, in spite of the natural prejudice 
which existed against everything German. He had some 
relatives in the Faubourg St. Germain, where both he and 
his wife were received with more cordiality than in official 
circles, and he felt more or less at home among them. This 

384 



A Few Foreign Diplomats 

fact made him cling to his Paris mission, where it was felt 
at the time that it would be difficult to replace him, and where, 
later on, his appointment as Chancellor of the German Empire 
was received with a certain amount of sympathy. 

Princess Hohenlohe was a fitting wife for that distinguished 
man. She was also a grande da?ne, highly born and highly 
connected, with some of the bluest blood in Europe flowing 
in her veins. She admirably filled her position as Ambas- 
sadress, and she made for herself in France, as everywhere 
else, a considerable number of friends. 

Prince Hohenlohe's successor. Count Munster, as 1 think 
I have already remarked, was in appearance more an English- 
man than a German. His wife had been English, and he 
affected great sympathies for everything that was British, 
loving London, where he always declared he spent the happiest 
time of his life, and crossing the Channel whenever he found 
it possible to do so. He was in Paris at the time of the Dreyfus 
affair, and contrived not to make for himself too many enemies, 
in spite of the difficult position and circumstances in which 
he found himself during that anxious period. Among diplo- 
mats he was liked, his advice being always appreciated and 
mostly followed. I cannot say the same thing about his 
successor. Prince Radolin, formerly Count Radolinski, who, 
in spite of the many years he remained in Paris, did not succeed 
in attaining the great position which had belonged to Prince 
Hohenlohe or to Count Munster 

During the latter' s tenure of the German Embassy, the 
present Prince von Biilow was one of his secretaries. In- 
telligent, clever in noticing what ought to be noticed, and 
in not seeing the things which apparently did not concern 
him, he contrived to keep himself exceedingly well au courant 
of all that was going on around him, and of the intentions 
and designs of French diplomacy. He was a man singularly 
z 385 



France from Behind the Veil 

unprejudiced, for whom the end always justified the means. He 
may perhaps have had too high an opinion of his own merits, 
and too much confidence in his power to do always what he 
liked and wanted. He could make himself very charming 
when he saw a personal advantage, and he was constantly 
on the look out for the things that others did not see or did 
not care to notice. His admiration for Prince Bismarck 
was unbounded, and he fondly nursed an ambition to replace 
him as Chancellor of the German Empire. Even at the time 
when he was a simple secretary at the Paris Embassy, he told 
a friend of his that he would probably never become an am- 
bassador, but might, if circumstances favoured him, come to 
be at the head of Germany's foreign policy. 

Prince Biilow, who fell from his high position because he 
had not understood the character of the Emperor William H., 
and imagined that the latter would not notice or would for- 
give him for trying to keep him in leading-strings, married 
one of the most distinguished women in Europe, an Italian 
by birth, and the daughter of the Princesse de Camporeale. 
Madame Biilow was the wife of another German diplomat. 
Count Donhoff, when she made the acquaintance of the 
future Chancellor. No one can doubt his love for the beautiful 
and intelHgent woman who at present is his wife. 

The first Ambassador whom Russia sent to Paris after 
the signature of peace with Germany was Prince Orloff, one 
of her greatest noblemen. His exalted position and high moral 
character put him above any suspicion of playing a double 
game between France and Prussia, and he had, moreover, the 
advantage of being a personal friend of President Thiers. He 
remained at his post for something like ten years, and when 
he was removed to Berlin, at the express desire of Prince 
Bismarck, his departure was mourned by all those who knew 
him. 

386 



A Few Foreign Diplomats 

Of his successor, Baron Mohrenheim, I shall say no more 
than that he had a very complex personality. He was not 
liked in France nor in Russia ; it is said that he only kept 
his post because he enjoyed the protection of the Empress 
Marie Feodorovna, the Consort of Alexander III. 

It was M. Nelidoff who replaced him, and who remained 
in possession of the Russian Embassy in Paris until his death. 
M. NeHdoff was a diplomat of the old school, who had spent 
almost his whole career in the East, and who had served 
under Count Ignatieff in Constantinople, accompanying him 
to San Stefano, where his signature figures on the famous 
treaty which was signed there, and which Europe did not 
consent to accept. He was not a man who would shrink 
with horror when seeing something dirty under his feet, but 
rather one who would try not to step into it. No one knew 
better than he did how to get over a difficulty, or how to 
avoid a mistake. He can certainly be considered as an able 
diplomat, and certainly also he cut a better figure in Paris 
than his successor, M. Izvolski, whom wicked tongues in St. 
Petersburg nicknamed Izvostchik, which means a cabdriver. 

Prince Orloff had had for private secretary during his stay 
in Paris Count Mouravieff, whom he took with him to Berlin, 
and who was ultimately to be put in possession of the Russian 
Foreign Office after the unexpected death of Prince Labanoff. 
Count Mouravieff was one of the most charmingly amiable 
men that Russian diplomacy ever possessed. His tact was 
something surpassing, and his cleverness, which had no shade 
of pedantry mixed with it, made him delightful. He has been 
accused of many things, including that of not being either 
a good or a faithful friend. I have had occasion to see 
that this was a most unjust and untrue reproach, because Count 
Muravieff, far from deserting those who had been his com- 
panions, when their worldly star did not shine any longer as 

387 



France from Behind the Veil 

brightly as it had done, was, on the contrary, always eager 
to oblige them in anything that he could possibly do for them, 
and kept up his relations with them sometimes even at the 
cost of some personal sacrifices. He was not liked by those 
who saw in him a possible rival, his quick career inter- 
fering with their own, but the few who knew him well esteemed 
him as much as they appreciated his intelligence and his 
pleasant conversation. 

I must, before ending with these few words of remembrance 
that I have given of my former colleagues, say something 
about the Italian Ambassador, Count Tornielli, or rather 
about his wife, who was a Russian by birth, a Countess Rostop- 
schine, the granddaughter of that Count Rostopschine who 
burned Moscow rather than give it up to Napoleon. She 
was an amiable woman, whose house was always open to 
her compatriots; one who had kept a great attachment for 
the land of her birth, and whose salon was a favourite resort 
for those who cared more for clever conversation than for 
polo or for tennis. She had a sister, the Countess Lydie 
Rostopschine, who has written several books full of interest, 
among them one called " Rastaqueropolis," which is the best 
description that has ever been published of Nice society 
and in general of the life and the people of the French 
Riviera. 



388 



L'ENVOI 

When I think of all those bright, happy days I spent in 
Paris I regret often that I cannot live them over again. 
I had hoped to be allowed to end my days on the banks of 
the Seine, in the gay city which has always proved so attractive 
to Russians. St. Petersburg did not interest me any longer. 
Its climate is far too severe for my old lungs and my ever- 
lasting rheumatism, and all the persons who were my friends 
in the old days have either died or disappeared from the social 
horizon. Fate ruled it otherwise, and my seventy-five years 
have not been allowed to remain in Paris where they believed 
they had found a home. An Imperial order removes me to 
another place where very probably I shall miss the attractions 
of Paris, and the resources which it offers to a bookworm 
like myself. Before going away I have read over again the 
reminiscences that in my idle moments I have scribbled for 
the benefit of those who care to read them when I am gone, 
and I have found a melancholy pleasure in doing so. It 
has been such a happy time, even for a misanthrope like 
myself. Each time I have left Paris it has been a joy to 
return, and to look once more on the familiar haunts where 
I used to walk in company with friends who, alas! have 
already gone. Would that I could follow them on that 
journey whence no one returns, before leaving Paris for ever ; 
because at my age one cannot hope for anything that the 
morrow may bring along with it — this wonderful Paris, 
z* 389 



L'Envoi 

where is so much of what constituted my former pleasures, will 
remain buried. Russia can only increase my melancholy, 
it is so different from what it was when I was young, and 
when the sadness of the snow which covered its ground found 
no echo in my young heart. 

Count Vassili's wish was realised. He died just before 
his intended departure from the Paris he had loved so well. 



390 



INDEX 



Abzac, Marquis d', 151 ; influence in 
Germany, 152 

Adam, Edmond, 191 

, Mme. Juliette, 188, 189; her 

antagonism to Bonapartism, 196; 
and Boulangism, 248, 253; and 
Gambetta, 192, 232 

Agoult, Comtesse d', 190 

Alexander III,, death of, 285 

Am^lie of Portugal, marriage of, 126 

Andre, Mme. Edouard, 177, 180 

Aosta, Duchess of, 46 

Arnim, Count, 383 

Aumale, Due d', banishment annulled, 
139 ; biography of, 133 ; cause of 
banishment, 138 ; offered the Pre- 
sidency, 145 ; in the Army, 137 ; 
popularity of, 124 ; and Trochu, 82 

, Duchesse d', 141 

B 

Bartet, Mme., 379 

Bazaine, Marshal, 64 ; trial of, 129 

Beaulaincourt, Comtesse de, 23, 30 

Beau voir, Marquis de, and Boulangism, 
247 

Bernhardt, Madame_^ Sarah, 379 

Berryer, M., 48 

Biron, Vicomte de^Gontaut, 161 ; and 
Bismarck, 162 

, Comte de Gontaut, 349 

Bisaccia, Due et Duchesse de la Roche- 
foucauld, 169 

Bismarck and Gambetta, 238 ; and 
Jules Favre, 73 ; and Vicomte de 
Gontaut Biron, 162 



Bonaparte, Prince Pierre, private life 
of, 40 

, Prince Victor, shoots Victor Noir, 

39 

, Princess Marie, marriage of, 41 

Bonnat, Joseph Leon, 142 

Bonnemains, Madame de, and Bou- 
langer, 247, 256 

Bontoux, M., and the Union Gfeerale, 
227 

Boulanger, General, 244 ; elected to 
Chamber, 247 ; flight of, 255 ; re- 
tirement of, 246 ; returns to Paris 
in disguise, 247 ; suicide of, 256 

Plot, the, 244 

Boulangism, the beginnings of, 246 

Boulangists and the Comte de Paris, 125 

Bourget, Paul, 377 

Briand, Aristide, career of, 366 ; poli- 
tical future of, 363 ; and the 
Socialists, 368 

Brisson, Barnabe, Nicholas II. visits, 
289 

Broglie, Due de, 147 ; an ardent 
Orleanist, 158 ; biography of, 156 ; 
and Feuillet, 158 

, Prince Amedee de, 159 

, Princesse de, 160 

Biilow, Prince von, 385 



Caillavet, Madame de, 332 
Canrobert, Marshal, candidature for 

Presidency, 145 
Carnot, Sadi, 245 ; as President, 271 ; 

becomes candidate for Presidency, 

229 ; murder of, 271 



391 



Index 



Castellane, Comte de, afiairs of, 316 
Castellane, Comtesse Jean de, 350 

, Marquis de, 349 

Castelnau, General, and the Prince 

Imperial, 60 
Castiglione, Comtesse de, 53 
Cavalgnac, M., and the Dreyfus affair, 

328 
Chambord, Comte de, biography of the, 
112 ; death of, 116 ; funeral of, 
122 ; dispute with MacMahon, 218 ; 
home life of, 112 ; and Marshal 
MacMahon, 115-118; and the 
Monarchical restoration, 115 ; and 
the Republic, 88 ; and Versailles, 
116 
Chantilly, bequeathed to the French 
Academy, 139 ; glories of, 124, 
134 
Chanzy, General, defeated at Orleans, 

81 
Chartres, Due de, characteristics of, 
128 ; marriage of, 130 ; and the 
Franco-Prussian War, 128 
Claretie, Jules, 217, 376 
Clemenceau, Georges, influence of, 309 ; 
and Baron Mohrenheim, 280 ; and 
Comtesse d'Aunay, 310 ; and Ed- 
\?ardVII., 361; and Falli^res, 358; 
and Russia, 279 ; and the Commune, 
92 ; and the Dreyfus affair, 312, 
321 
Clery, Maitre, 140 
Clotilde of Savoy, Princesse, 45 ; and 

Empress Eugenie, 14 
Commune, the, fight with Thiers' 
troops at P^re- la -Chaise, 95; 
opinions on, 94 ; outbreak of the, 
87 ; stamping out the, 97 
Compiegne, life at, 9, 25 
Conneau, Dr., contrives Napoleon's 
escape from Ham, 21 ; Napoleon's 
friendship with, 20 
Constant, M., and General Boulanger, 

255 
Conti, M., 23 



D 

Darboy, Archbishop, assassination of, 
95 

Daudet, Alphonse, 215 

, Ernest, 217 

, Leon, 216 

, Lucien, 216 

, Madame Alphonse, 335 

Debats, Journal des, 299 

Decazes, Due, 147 ; as Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, 160 ; biography of, 
156 

Delahaye, Jules, denounces Panama 
affairs in Chamber, 263 

Deroul^de, Paul, and Boulangism, 248, 
252 

Dillon, Count, and Boulangism, 247 

Donnersmarck, Count Henckel von, 
238 

Dorian, Madame Menard, 332 

Dreyfus affair, 318 ; a family inci- 
dent, 336 ; the religious element, 
328 ; the verdict, 319 ; and Faure, 
295 ; and Zola, 323 

, Captain, in the dock, 318 ; per- 
sonality of, 323 

Dumas, Alex., 211 

, Colette, 213 

, Jeannine, 213 



E 

Empire, last days of the, 48 

Esterhazy, Col., and the Dreyfus 
affair, 326 

Eugenie, Empress, 3, 9, 26, 65 ; as 
Regent, 63 ; attitude before the 
Franco-Prussian War, 59 ; bravery 
as a nurse, 11 ; flight of, 71 ; leaves 
St. Cloud, 63 ; unpopularity during 
war, 59 ; and her son, 12 ; and Mar- 
shal MacMahon, 64 ; and peace nego- 
tiations, 78 ; and the 4th of Septem- 
ber, 37 ; and Thiers, 104. {See also 
under Napoleon III.) 



392 



Index 



FalliSres, Andr6, 365 

, Annand, at St. Petersburg, 362 ; 

elected to the Presidency, 358 ; and 
Clemenceau, 358 ; and the Vatican, 
359 

, Madame, 364 

Falloux, Comte de, 214 

Faure, F61ix, at the Elysee, 283 ; death 
of, 294 ; early career, 276 ; elected 
to Presidency, 276 ; supposed over- 
tures to Germany, 296 ; visits 
Nicholas II., 294 ; and Nicholas II., 
in Paris, 284 ; and the Russian 
Fleet, 277 

Favre, Jules, makes a false move, 90 ; 
and Bismarck, 73 ; and the Franco- 
Prussian War, 75 

Ferry, Jules, advocates the Republic, 
68 ; and Esterhazy, 326 

Feuillet, Octave, 28 

Flaubert, Gustave, personality of, 
375 ' 

Fleury, General, 23 

Flourens, Pierre, and the Panama 
scandal, 267 

Fontainebleau, life at, 25 

Fortoul, M, de, 150 

France, Anatole, personality of, 374 

France, estimation of patriotism in, 
96 

Franco-Prussian War, capitulation of 
Paris, 83 ; defeat of army of 
Chanzy, 81 ; effect on Monarchy, 
63 ; first disasters in, 63 ; peace 
negotiations at Versailles, 84 ; Prince 
Imperial at, 62 ; Prussian troops 
enter Paris, 84 ; the Emperor's 
review outside Paris, 86 ; the eve 
of the, in Paris, 56 ; troops' return 
from captivity, 94 

Franco - Russian misunderstanding, 
313 

entente, the, 278, 285 

French court life under Napoleon, 111 

Freycinet, M. de, 224, 229 



Galliera, Duchesse de, 177 

Galiffet, Marquise de, 29 

Gambetta, Leon, as Prime Minister 
236 ; biography of, 231 ; death of, 
241 ; forms his Cabinet, 236 ; his 
chief ambition, 233 ; his early social 
errors, 194 ; his estimation of Mac- 
Mahon, 224 ; his projected mar- 
riage, 239 ; in 1871, 88 ; the mys- 
tery of his accident, 239 ; and Bis- 
marck, 238 ; and Comte de St. 
Vallier, 237 ; and European poli- 
tics, 233 ; and Germany, 233 ; and 
Madame Juliette Adam, 192 ; and 
the 4th of September, 65 

Gaulois, the, 303 

Gortschakoff, Prince, and the Russian 
canard, 164 

Gonne, Miss Maud, and Boulangism, 253 

Gramont, Due de, 46 ; at Vienna, 47 

, Duchesse de, 351 

Granier, Jeanne, Madame, 380 

Grevy, Jules, as President, 225 ; re- 
signs the Presidency, 228 ; and 
Daniel Wilson, 227 

H 

Hading, Jane, Madame, 380 
Hanotaux, Gabriel, as a writer, 297 
Harcourt, Vicomte Emmanuel d', 149 
Henry, Colonel, and the Dreyfus 

affair, 327 
Herz, Cornelius, and the Panama Canal 

259' 
Hohenlohe, Prince, 383 ; as Ambas-. 

sador, 276 
HohenzoUern, Prince Leopold of, and 

the Spanish throne, 52 
Hugo, Georges, 334 
Humbert, Madame, 355 



Imperial, Prince, and the Franco- 
Prussian War, 60 



393 



Index 



Jacquemard, Mile. Nelly, 180, 182 
Jaurds, M., and the Socialists, 369 
Journal, the, 299 



Lacroix, Madame, 58, 188 

Laguerre, George, and Boulangism, 
248, 251 

Lamartine, M. de, 48 

Lambert, Madame Juliette, 190. (See 
also Adam, Juliette.) 

Lanterne, the, 304 

Lasteyrie, Marquis Jules de, 194 

Lecomte, assassination of, 91 

Legitimists, position of, under Third 
Republic, 168 

Lemaitre, Jules, 141 

L6on, Princesse de, 179 

Lesseps, Ferdinand de, mental break- 
down of, 264 ; sentenced to im- 
prisonment, 265 ; and the Panama 
Canal, 258. (See also Panama scan- 
dal.) 

, Charles de, 259 ; his affection 

for his father, 264. (See also Panama 
scandal.) 

Loti, Pierre, personality of, 376 

Loubet, Emile, achievements during 
Presidency, 313 ; elected to the 
Presidency, 308 ; in London, 314 ; 
in Rome, 314 ; Nicholas II. visits, 
289 ; refuses to visit the Pope, 315 ; 
and the Catholic rupture, 311 ; and 
the Dreyfus affair, 312 

Luynes, Duchesse de, 169, 172 

Lyons, Lord, 383 

M 
MacMahon, Marshal, at the Elysee, 
147 ; coup d'etat of, 159 ; death 
of, 155 ; dispute with Comte de 
Chambord, 218 ; elements of failure 
as President, 221 ; fall of, 218 ; his 
letter to Jules Simon, 149 ; over- 
throw of, 154 ; Presidency of, 144 ; 



proceeds to join Marshal Bazaine, 

64 ; retires from Presidency, 226 ; 

and the Comte de Chambord, 115, 

118 ; and d'Harcourt, 149 ; and 

the coup d'etat of May 16th, 223 ; and 

Thiers, 110 
Magenta, Due de, 148 

, Duchesse de, 148 

Maill6, Duchesse de, 186 

Mathilde, Princess, 14 ; and Taine, 

209 
Matin, the, 298 
Maupassant, Guy de, personality of, 

376 
May, the 16th of, 218 
Mazas, prison invaded by mob, 83 
Merimee, M., 27 
Messine, Mile. Juliette la, 190. (See 

also Adam, Juliette, and Lambert, 

Juliette.) 
Metternich, Prince, 382 ; and Adolphe 

Thiers, 102 

Princess Paul, 2, 17 

Meyer, Arthur, career of, 301 ; starts 

the Panama revelations, 262 ; and 

Boulangism, 247 ; and Charles de 

Lesseps, 260 
Millevoye, Lucien, and Boulangism, 

248, 252 
Mirbeau, Octave, career of, 372 
Mocquard, M., 21 
Mohrenheim, Baron de, and Clemen- 

ceau, 280 ; and Faure, 277 
Monaco, Princesse de, 175 
Monarchist restoration, chances of, in 

1871, 88 
Montagnini, Mgr., and the Catholic 

crisis, 360 
Montalembert, Charles de, 49 
Montebello, Comtesse Jean de, 346 
Mor^s, Marquis de, and Russia, 279 
Mouchy, Due de, marries Princess 

Anna Murat, 167 
Mun, Count Albert de, and Boulangism 

248, 250 



394 



Index 



Munster, Count, as Ambassador, 275, 
385 ; and the Dreyfus affair, 274 

Murat, Princess Anna, and Empress 
Eug6nie, 16 

Muravieff, Count, 387 

N 
Napoleon III., at the Franco-Prussian 
War, 58 ; end of his dynasty, 70 ; in 
1868, 3 ; influence of, 67 ; leaves St. 
Cloud, 60 ; personal characteristics, 
6 ; and Italian secret societies, 6 

, Prince, and Empress Eugenie, 14 

, Prince Louis, 45 

, Prince " Plon Plon," 43 

National Assembly, first meeting of 
the, 225 ; ratifies peace, 87 

Guard, the disarmament trouble 

begins, 90 

Nelidoff, M. de, 387 

Nerville, Madame Aubernon de, 188 

Nicholas 11. at Chalons, 290 ; at the 

Russian Embassy, 290 ; visits Bris- 

son, 289; visits Loubet, 289 ; visits 

Paris, 284, 287 
Nigra, Count, 32, 382; a significant 

prophecy, 33 
Noailles, Comtesse Mathieu de, 337 
Noir, Victor, shot by Prince Pierre, 39 

O 

Ollivier, Emile, 24, 38 ; changes in 
Cabinet of, 46 ; Ministry of, dis- 
trusted, 48 ; urges Napoleon's re- 
turn to Paris, 64 

Orleanism, hopes of, 220 

Orleans, Due d', 127 

family, 131 

Orleanist cause, the, 123 

Orleanists and the confiscated millions, 

123 ; and the Republic, 88 
Orloff, Prince, 386 

P 
Panama Scandal, money becomes 
scarce, 258 ; the Canal scheme, 257 ; 
the lottery is suggested, 258 ; the 



public trial, 265 ; and the Re- 
public, 269 

Paris, Bismarck and the Peace of, 
73 ; capitulation of, 83 ; during the 
siege, 73 ; experiences of, during 
revolution, 78 ; invasion of Mazas 
by the mob, 83 ; news of Sedan 
reaches, 66 ; on the eve of the 
Franco-Prussian "War, 56 ; popula- 
tion fraternises with Prussians, 85 ; 
prepares for the siege, 71 ; Prussian 
troops enter, 84 ; September 4th 
in, 65 ; settles down after Com- 
mune, 97 ; society after the fall of 
the Empire, 166 ; society in 1868, 
1 ; society of to-day, 343 ; society 
under Loubet, 315 ; the Commune, 
87 ; Thiers returns after the Com- 
mune, 97 ; visit of Nicholas IL, 284, 
287 ; food during siege, 80 

, Comte de, personality of, 125 ; 

and the Boulangists, 125 

Peace negotiations of Franco-Prussian 
War, 84 

Pellieux, General de, and the Dreyfus 
affair, 327 

Perier, Casimir, early career of, 272 ; 
elected President, 273 ; strength of 
character, 273 ; why he resigned 
Presidency, 274 

P^re-la-Chaise, the fight at, 95 

Petit Parisien, the, 300 

Plebiscite, the, first suggested, 41 

" Plon Plon," Prince, 43 

Pobedonosteff, M., and Boulangism, 254 

Poilly, Baronne de, 30 

Pourtal^s, Comtesse M61anie de, 17, 19, 
180 

Press, the French, 297 

Presse, the, 304 

Prevost, Marcel, personality of, 378 

Psichari, Madame, 335 

R 

Radziwill family, the, 352 
Reinach, Baron Jacques, and the 
Panama Scandal, 261 



395 



Index 



Rejane, Madame, 380 

Renan, Ernest, 205 

, Henriette, 206 

Republic, the Third, birth of the, 69 ; 
disbelief in its stability, 88 ; Jules 
Ferry incites revolt, 68; the' mis- 
take of the, 74 

Revolution, excesses during the, 77 ; 
of 1870, start of the, 69 

Rochefort-Lu?ay, Henri, Marquis de, 
as a journalist, 305 ; and Bou- 
langism, 248 

Rochefoucauld, Comte de la, 174 

, Comtesse Aimery de la, 174 

, La, family of, 173 

Rochette, career of, 355 ; scandal, 355 

Rodin and Mirbeau, 373 

Rohan, Duchesse de, 179 

Rostopschine, Countess Lydie, 388 

Rothschild, Baron Henri de, 339 

Rouher, M., 38 ; character sketch of, 
42 ; and the Plebiscite, 42 

Rouvier, Maurice, as candidate for the 
Presidency, 308 ; characteristics of, 
340 ; and the Panama Scandal, 267 

S 

St. Vallier, Comte de, and Gambetta, 

237 
Sagan, Prince and Princesse de, 183 

, Princesse de, 128 

Sedan, fall of, news received in Paris, 66 

September 4th in Paris, 65 

Siege of Paris, 73 ; food during, 80 

Simon, Jules, as Prime Minister, 221 

Socialism in France, 368 

Sorel, Cecile, 379, 380 

Spain, Prince Leopold of Hohenzol- 

lern and the throne of, 52 

T 
Taine, Hippolyte, 209 
Talleyrand, Due de, 186 
Temps, the, 298 
Thiebaud, George, and Boulangism, 247 



Thiers, Adolphe, as a historical writer, 
100 ; characteristics of, 99 ; death 
of, 110 ; elected head of National 
Assembly, 89 ; explains his severity 
during the Commune, 108 ; flight of, 
to Versailles, 9 ; imprisonment of, 

103 ; M. and Madame, at the 
Elysee, 167 ; Ministry overturned, 
144 ; negotiates for peace, 84 ; 
opposes the Plebiscite, 41 ; returns 
to Paris after Commune, 97 ; his 
troops defeat Communards at P6re- 
la-Ghaise, 95 ; and Empress Eugenie, 

104 ; and Marshal MacMahon, 110 ; 
and Prince Metternich, 102 ; and the 
Bonapartists, 109 ; and the Com- 
mune, 106 ; and the Empire, 104 ; 
and the situation in 1871, 89 

Thomas, Clement, assassination of, 91 
Tornielli, Comtesse, 388 
Tradern, Comtesse de, 350 
Trochu, General, 65 ; conduct during 

the siege of Paris, 81 ; and Due 

d'Aumale, 82 
Tsartoryski, Prince Ladislas, 351 
Tuileries, the, forced by the mob, 1870, 

70 ; life at, 24 

U 
Union-G^nerale collapse, 226 
Uz6s, Duchesse d', and Boulangism 
248, 269, 251 



Valovska, Countess, 17 
Viollet-le-Duc, M., 29 
Vogu6, Vicomte de, 377 

W 
Wilson, Daniel, and President Gr6vy, 

227 
Wimpffen, General, 76 

Z 

Zola, Emile, 214, 336 ; burial in the 
Pantheon, 324 ; and the Dreyfus 
affair, 323 

, Madame, 336 



POINTED BY CaSSELL & CoMpANY, LiMITED, L,A BeLLE SaUVAGE, LoNDON, E.C. 



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